Florida reports fourth case of monkeypox. CDC presumes community spread in US.
Florida has reported a fourth case of monkeypox, just as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is raising the alert level nationally and recommending travelers avoid close contact with anyone with skin lesions.
The newest case in Florida, reported Monday, follows three additional cases of monkeypox in Broward County confirmed over the last two weeks. The state did not say in which county the fourth case occurred.
Monkeypox presents as flu-like symptoms before patients develop a painful rash and lesions and swollen lymph nodes. CDC officials said some doctors may confuse the lesions, which may appear near the genitals, for a sexually transmitted disease, and the real number of cases could be higher. Several recent patients reported rashes in the genital area that did not spread to the rest of the body, which could make the infections less visible.
In Florida, as in other states, health officials are isolating patients, performing contact tracing and looking for signs of community spread, while cautioning that monkeypox is not on the same level of concern as COVID-19. Disease experts believe monkeypox currently is spreading among people via skin-to-skin contact.
On Tuesday, the CDC provided more details on confirmed cases, including those in Florida. Most of the patients reported international travel involving 11 different countries during the 21 days before their symptoms arose. The average age of patients is 40 and all but one identify as men who have sex with men. The patients reported initial symptoms including fatigue, fever, or headache and received a monkeypox diagnosis an average of 11 days after a rash appeared. Most of the time the rash started in the genital or perianal area and spread to the arms, trunk, legs, and face.
Because close physical contact with infected persons can spread monkeypox, any person, irrespective of gender or sexual orientation, can acquire and spread monkeypox. Some cases were reported in people who live in the same household as an infected person.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said last week that “we need to presume that there is some community spread.”
Nationally, there are 31 cases with two states reporting more cases than Florida: California (6) and New York (7). The CDC said Monday that cases have been reported on every continent aside from Antarctica.
Officials with the World Health Organization are reporting that the incubation period between exposure and when symptoms first appear can be anywhere from five to 21 days. Public labs can now confirm a monkeypox diagnosis within two days.
At a news briefing Friday, CDC experts said genetic analysis of recent monkeypox cases suggests there are two distinct strains in the U.S., indicating a possibility that the virus has been circulating undetected for some time. The agency is intensifying its efforts to find infections and says it’s likely more cases will be reported.
The findings mean the outbreak likely will be difficult to contain, Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, told the Associated Press.
The FDA approved the Jynneos vaccine in 2019 to be used for monkeypox. Older smallpox vaccines have been shown to protect against monkeypox around 85% of the time.
The following measures can be taken by the public to prevent infection with monkeypox:
* Isolate ill persons from uninfected persons
* Practice good hand hygiene and use appropriate personal protective equipment to protect household members if ill or caring for ill persons at home
* Use an Environmental Protection Agency–registered disinfectant
* Avoid contact with pets and other animals while infectious, because some might be susceptible to monkeypox
Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.
