First Outbreak of Human Monkey Pox in W. Hemisphere

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First Outbreak Of Human

Monkeypox In W. Hemisphere

CDC Media Relations

6-8-3

 

Public Health Investigation Uncovers First Outbreak of Human

Monkeypox Infection in Western Hemisphere

 

Public health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC) and the states of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana

have reported the first outbreak of human infections with a monkeypox-

like virus to be documented in the Western Hemisphere. Thus far, 19

cases have been reported: 17 in Wisconsin, one in Northern Illinois,

and one in Northern Indiana. All patients who have become ill

reported direct or close contact with ill prairie dogs.

 

CDC is advising physicians, veterinarians, and the public to report

instances of rash illness associated with exposure to prairie dogs,

Gambian rats and other animals to local and state public health

authorities. CDC also has issued interim recommendations for

infection control calling for health care personnel attending

hospitalized patients to follow standard precautions for guarding

against airborne or contact illness. Veterinarians examining or

treating sick rodents, rabbits and such exotic pets as prairie dogs

and Gambian rats are advised to use personal protective equipment,

including gloves, surgical mask or N-95 respirator, and gowns.

 

The prairie dogs were sold by a Milwaukee animal distributor in May

to two pet shops in the Milwaukee area and during a pet " swap meet "

(pets for sale or exchange) in northern Wisconsin. The Milwaukee

animal distributor obtained prairie dogs and a Gambian giant rat that

was ill at the time from a northern Illinois animal distributor.

Investigations are underway to trace the source of animals and the

subsequent distribution of animals from the Illinois distributor.

Preliminary information suggests that animals from this distributor

may have been sold in several other states.

 

Human monkeypox is a rare, zoonotic, viral disease that occurs

primarily in the rain forest countries of Central and West Africa. It

is a member of the orthopox family of viruses. In humans, infection

with monkeypox virus results in a rash illness similar to but less

infectious than smallpox. Monkeypox in humans is not usually fatal.

The incubation period is about 12 days. Animal species susceptible to

monkeypox virus may include non-human primates, rabbits, and some

rodents.

 

Scientists at the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wisconsin,

recovered the first viral isolates from a patient and a prairie dog.

Through examination with an electron microscope they demonstrated a

poxvirus.

 

Physicians should consider monkeypox in persons with fever, cough,

headache, myalgia, rash, or lymph node enlargement within 3 weeks

after contact with prairie dogs or Gambian giant rats. Veterinarians

examining sick exotic animal species, especially prairie dogs and

Gambian giant rats, should consider the possibility of monkeypox.

Veterinarians should also be alert to the development of illness in

other animal species that may have been housed with ill prairie dogs

or Gambian giant rats.

 

Local, state, and federal agencies and private institutions that have

participated in this investigation to date have included the

Marshfield Clinic and Marshfield Laboratories, Froedtert Hospital and

Medical College of Wisconsin, the City of Milwaukee Health Department

and at least 10 additional health departments in Wisconsin and

Illinois, the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, Wisconsin

Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection and Wisconsin

State Laboratory of Hygiene, the Illinois Department of Public

Health, the Illinois State Department of Agriculture, the Indiana

State Department of Health, and the US Department of Agriculture.

 

Note to Editors: For electron microscope images, please see

http://research.marshfieldclinic.org/crc/prairiedog.asp

 

For additional information about monkeypox, see

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no3/hutinG1.htm

 

http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r030607.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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