NSW Health said the 50-year-old man developed a mild illness several days after returning to Sydney from Europe.
It was to her doctor that she found that her symptoms were “clinically compatible” with the monkey’s smallpox, which was later confirmed by tests.
He is currently isolated in his home.
An electron microscopy (MS) image depicts a virion of monkeypox, obtained from a clinical sample associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. It was a fine-section image of a human skin sample. On the left were mature, oval-shaped virus particles, and on the right were crescent moons and spherical particles of immature virions. High resolution: Click here for a high resolution image (5.21 MB) Content providers: CDC / Cynthia S. Goldsmith Date created: 2003 Photo credit: Cynthia S. Goldsmi (AP)
“NSW Health is conducting contact tracking and providing appropriate health advice to all identified contacts,” NSW Health said in a statement.
The case is not related to the two previous cases reported to the state.
NSW Health Director Dr Kerry Chant has praised the work of GPs as diagnosed by this man as the monkey’s smallpox had never been identified in NSW before last month.
“Monkeypox does not pose a risk of transmission to the general community and until recently has not been an infection that most NSW doctors would have been looking for or caring about for their patients,” Chant said.
Smallpox is endemic in Africa, but cases have been reported in non-endemic countries since May this year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the symptoms of smallpox are “very similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although clinically less severe.”
It is transmitted to humans through close contact with an infected person or animal, the WHO said.
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