The Monkeypox Virus Is In Maryland

Maryland has reported its first presumed case of human monkeypox, a rare but contagious infection that has shown up in the United States.

The state’s health department has not confirmed the case as of yet.

A state resident who may have it has experienced mild symptoms that did not require hospital care, the Maryland Department of Health said Thursday. The unidentified person is in isolation and waiting for test results to confirm an infection.

Human monkeypox is a virus that causes symptoms similar to smallpox, however, it is typically less severe.

The health department did not give further m details about the resident, Baltimore Sun reported.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already confirmed less than 100 cases among 20 states in the current outbreak, first reported in May.

The virus is spread through direct contact with skin lesions or body fluids, or with contaminated materials such as clothing or linens, the CDC reported. However, it can spread by respiratory droplets, likely from face-to-face contact.

Symptoms may include fever, chills, swelling of lymph nodes, and a distinctive pox-like rash that often begins on the face or hands before spreading to other parts of the body, the agency said.

While people typically contract monkeypox by touching infected animals, in this outbreak, people are becoming infected primarily through sexual and social networks.

The majority of infections have been in men who have sex with the same sex, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, who is a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

People are getting rashes close to their genitals, which is causing clinicians to misdiagnose monkeypox as a sexually transmitted disease. As a result, the misdiagnosis is contributing to the ability of the virus to spread undetected, Adalja added.

Symptoms usually appear one to two weeks after exposure and clear up within two to four weeks.

“What we’re seeing is this virus is really taking advantage of the close contacts within the sexual, social network. So I think that the risk to the general public is low,” Adalja said. “But it’s important to be aware of it, especially if you’re in contact with somebody that might have monkeypox. But it’s not something that is very contagious. It requires close contact. It’s not like a respiratory virus.”