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Virginia public health officials on Thursday reported the state’s first alleged positive case of smallpox in a woman from northern Virginia who recently traveled to an African country.
Virginia’s case is among the nine identified in seven states, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters Thursday morning. The state lab identified the case, and as of Thursday afternoon, the Virginia Department of Health was awaiting confirmation from the CDC.
The patient was not infected during the trip, did not require hospitalization and is being isolated at home, state officials said. The health department identified their close contacts and is monitoring them.
State Health Commissioner Colin M. Greene stressed that despite the recent national upheaval, monkeypox is a very rare disease in the United States and the Virginia resident who tested positive does not pose a health risk. public.
“Transmission requires close contact with someone with symptomatic smallpox and this virus has not been shown to be able to spread rapidly to the general population,” he said.
What is the monkeypox, the rare virus that has now been confirmed in the US and Europe?
Last week, the health department advised Virginia medical providers to be on the lookout for monkeypox cases and report them immediately to local health authorities.
Smallpox is a rare but potentially serious viral disease that usually begins with flu-like symptoms and swelling of the lymph nodes and progresses to a rash on the face and body, the state message said. Symptoms usually appear between seven and 14 days after exposure and usually go away in two to four weeks.
Recent cases represent the first identified in the United States this year. Last year, Maryland and Texas each reported a case in people who had recently visited Nigeria, Virginia officials said.
Cases have also been identified this year in Massachusetts, Florida, Utah, New York, Washington State and California.
As cases of monkeypox increase in Europe and other parts of the world, health authorities are expressing concern about the unusual increase. (Video: Alexa Juliana Ard, Meryl Kornfield / The Washington Post)
“We have to assume that there is some community outreach, but there is an active follow-up of contacts that is taking place at the moment to understand if and how these cases could have been in contact with each other or with others from other countries.” , CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. he said Thursday.
The CDC’s monkeypox warning calls for “improved precautions” for travel
The first case of monkeypox in the United States this year was identified last week in Massachusetts, in a resident who had recently traveled to Canada. Unusual global growth has clustered in Europe, as well as in the United States and Canada, says the World Health Organization.
Fenit Nirappil contributed to this report.