Suspected Cases of Monkeypox Are Rising

[Guest guest]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/10/national/10DOGS.html?th

 

Suspected Cases of Monkeypox Are Rising

By MONICA DAVEY with LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

 

 

 

MILWAUKEE, June 9 — As the number of suspected monkeypox cases rose to at least

33 in three Midwestern states, hundreds of nervous people contacted doctors and

public health hot lines, veterinarians and pet shops, full of questions about a

viral disease never before seen in this part of the world.

 

Christie Poulsen, a veterinarian's assistant in suburban Milwaukee, went to her

doctor, worried that she might have contracted the disease since she had been

suffering from congestion, hives and nausea for almost three weeks. The doctor

concluded that she did not have it, she said, adding, " He laughed at me. "

 

JoAnn Sanfelippo came to a Milwaukee pet store, Hoffer's Tropic Life Pets, to

get diet food for her dog, but left wondering whether she should have entered

the store at all, given that a worker there had been sickened, apparently by pet

prairie dogs. " Should I wash my hands a lot when I get home? " she asked another

visitor. " Does that work? "

A panel of immunization experts, appointed by the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, began weighing in on whether and how the smallpox vaccine might

be used to protect people exposed to infected prairie dogs and possibly to

infected humans, but reached no decision.

 

Steve Kautzer, meanwhile, waited inside his house in Dorchester, Wis., wondering

when the odd, itchy spots on his legs, arms and back might fade away, and he

might be allowed by health care authorities to return to his job at a sawmill.

 

" The way it is now, they have told us we really can't go anywhere, " Mr. Kautzer

said of himself, his wife, Tammy, and their 3-year-old daughter, Schyan, all of

whom are suspected of having contracted monkeypox. " And they can't tell us

exactly when that will change. "

 

Mr. Kautzer wonders, too, about the fate of Chuckles, the family's pet prairie

dog, now sequestered in a cage on a porch, while health authorities decide his

future.

 

The centers said today that the number of possible cases of monkeypox, a virus

never before seen in the Americas, had grown to 33 since a day earlier, although

some state health authorities reported a slightly higher number. Of the seven

people hospitalized, one has been discharged, and no one has died.

In Illinois, the authorities reported 5 possible cases, mostly in the suburbs of

Chicago, and in Indiana, health care officials said they had at least 13

possible cases. The bulk of the illnesses, though, have cropped up in Wisconsin,

mainly in Milwaukee and in the towns nearby. Wisconsin health officials said

tonight that they had 19 suspected cases.

 

So far, no cases appear to have been spread from one person to another, which

has buoyed the hopes of the health care workers here who are still trying to

grasp the size and scope of the outbreak.

 

Everyone known to be infected, officials said, had contact with a pet prairie

dog or some other animal that had contact with a pet prairie dog. They suspect a

shipment of prairie dogs, sold in several states by a pet distributor, Phil's

Pocket Pets, near Chicago, may have been infected by a pet Gambian giant pouched

rat, which comes from Central or West Africa.

 

Prairie dogs, which have grown popular as exotic pets, are furry sociable

creatures that are often chestnut and about the size of a small cat or gopher.

 

That monkeypox seems not to be spreading from one person to another " makes us

very hopeful, " said Paul Biedrzycki, a Milwaukee health official who is the

incident commander for the outbreak in his area. " But we really need to watch

carefully. We're still in the beginning phases of understanding this. This is

very difficult because it is so new to us. "

 

Today, hundreds of people called a Milwaukee County hot line with questions:

Could they get it? Could their dog get it? Could their rash be monkeypox?

Monkeypox is named for monkeys, because in Africa it often kills them. There it

is often carried by squirrels.

 

At Rainbow Pets in Shorewood, Patricia Simmons, an owner, scrubbed the animal

tanks with bleach this afternoon. No small mammals, prairie dogs or otherwise,

were for sale. For seven days in mid-May, prairie dogs had played in a display

near the front counter, until Whitmarsh, the other owner, got sick with a

fever, swollen glands, blisterlike pimples and a pounding sensation in her chest

that felt as if it were being compressed from the front and back.

 

Ms. Whitmarsh, who has mostly recovered, came to work this morning, but was

quickly sent home by health officials who said the blister that remains on the

top of her head needs to scab over or fall off before she can come back to work.

Although officials have seen no cases of person-to-person transmission, they

suspect that contact with a pus-filled blister, typical of the monkeypox, might

be a risk.

 

While most customers have been calm, Ms. Simmons said, a few have come to ask

about the safety of pets they bought here, and one threatening call came this

morning: " Take your disease and get out of Shorewood. "

 

Some officials here have encouraged those in quarantine to wear surgical masks,

to sleep alone and to wash their own sheets.

 

The national panel of immunization experts, known as the Advisory Committee on

Immunization Practices, reached no decision today on whether the vaccine for

smallpox, which is related to monkeypox, will be used in the outbreak.

Smallpox vaccine is one of the most dangerous immunizations and the discussions

focused on its benefits and risks for a disease that can be fatal in up to 10

percent of cases. The death rate for smallpox is about 30 percent.

 

Dr. D. A. Henderson, who led the program to eradicate smallpox from the world,

said in an interview that he would favor using the smallpox vaccine for such

groups.

 

" Monkeypox does not spread very readily among humans, but it is not a disease

you can take lightly, " Dr. Henderson said.

 

Monkeypox " is nowhere near as contagious as smallpox, measles, chickenpox or

influenza, " he added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

To , e-mail to: Gettingwell-

Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell

 

 

 

Free online calendar with sync to Outlook.