Douglas County has reported the first suspected case of monkeypox in Nebraska.
The patient is a man in his 30s with a history of international travel, the Douglas County Health Department said in a news release. The person is isolating at home and the health department said contact tracing is being done to find anyone else who may have been exposed to the illness.
The case was identified by the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory and a sample was sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation.
The case is one of more than 200 cases of the disease that have been officially diagnosed in the US as part of a global outbreak that began earlier this year. However, medical experts have speculated that the case numbers here are much higher and are underreported due to a lack of testing.
“As monkeypox infections are increasingly being identified in the US and around the world, it is critical that we continue to look for it here in Nebraska,” said Nebraska State Epidemiologist Dr. Matthew Donahue.
People are also reading…
“Monkeypox spreads through close contact with someone who has a characteristic rash. Nebraskans need to be aware of the appearance of the rash, and we need people with this characteristic rash to speak with their health care providers so we can help them schedule testing.”
Health experts urge Nebraska providers to be vigilant for monkeypox
In addition to the rash, which causes lesions that resemble pimples or blisters, monkeypox usually causes other symptoms including swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, and body aches. Human transmission usually involves prolonged close personal contact or contact with materials contaminated with the virus.
The disease is similar to smallpox, but usually produces milder symptoms.
Watch Now: Lincoln Medical Offices to Begin Offering COVID-19 Vaccine to Young Children Soon
COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5 is not yet available in Lincoln
What is monkeypox and where does it spread?
What is monkeypox?
Monkeypox is a virus that originates in wild animals such as rodents and primates, and occasionally jumps to people. Most human cases have occurred in central and western Africa, where the disease is endemic.
The disease was first identified by scientists in 1958 when there were two outbreaks of a “smallpox-like” disease in research monkeys, hence the name monkeypox. The first known human infection was in 1970, in a 9-year-old boy in a remote part of the Congo.
Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC via AP
What are the symptoms and how is it treated?
Monkeypox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes milder symptoms.
Most patients only experience fever, body aches, chills, and fatigue. People with more severe illnesses may develop rashes and lesions on the face and hands that can spread to other parts of the body.
The incubation period is approximately five days to three weeks. Most people recover in about two to four weeks without hospitalization.
Monkeypox can be fatal to one in 10 people and is thought to be more serious in children.
People exposed to the virus often receive one of several smallpox vaccines, which have been shown to be effective against monkeypox. Antiviral drugs are also being developed.
On Thursday, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control recommended isolating all suspected cases and offering the smallpox vaccine to high-risk contacts.
AP Photo/Janet Hostetter
How many cases of monkeypox are there normally?
The World Health Organization estimates that there are thousands of monkeypox infections in about a dozen African countries each year. Most are in the Congo, which reports about 6,000 cases a year, and Nigeria, with about 3,000 cases a year.
Patchy health monitoring systems mean many infected people are likely to be missed, experts say.
Isolated cases of monkeypox are occasionally found outside of Africa, including in the US and Great Britain. Cases are often associated with travel to Africa or contact with animals from areas where the disease is more common.
In 2003, 47 people in six US states had confirmed or probable cases. They contracted the virus from prairie dogs that were housed near small mammals imported from Ghana.
AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File
What is different about these cases?
It is the first time that monkeypox appears to be spreading among people who did not travel to Africa.
In Europe, infections have been reported in Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. Most cases involve men who have had sex with men.
Britain’s Health Security Agency said not all of its cases are connected, suggesting multiple chains of transmission are occurring.
The infections in Portugal were detected at a sexual health clinic, where the men sought help for injuries to their genitals.
On Wednesday, US officials reported a case of monkeypox in a man who had recently traveled to Canada, where authorities are investigating possible infections.
AP Photo/Allen Sullivan
Is monkeypox transmitted through sex?
It is possible, but it is not clear at the moment.
Monkeypox has not previously been documented to spread through sex, but it can be transmitted through close contact with infected people, their bodily fluids, and their clothing or bedding.
Michael Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London, said it was still too early to determine how men in the UK became infected.
“By nature, sexual activity involves intimate contact, which one would expect to increase the likelihood of transmission, regardless of a person’s sexual orientation and mode of transmission,” Skinner said.
Francois Balloux of University College London said monkeypox said that sex qualifies as the type of close contact necessary to transmit the disease.
The UK cases “do not necessarily imply any recent change in the route of transmission of the virus,” Balloux said.
___
Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.
Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC via AP
Contact the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.