Monkeypox: More than 200 contacts tracked in US for rare disease

 

After a Texas resident who recently traveled from Africa to the U.S. was hospitalized with monkeypox, officials are monitoring 200 people across 27 states for the disease, BBC reports.

They fear people may have come in to contact with a Texas man who brought the disease in from Nigeria earlier this month.

The man - believed to be the first monkeypox case in the US since 2003 - was taken to hospital but is in a stable condition.

What is monkeypox?

According to the New York Times, monkeypox—so called because it was first identified in laboratory monkeys—is a rare viral infection that begins with flu-like symptoms and progresses to a distinctive rash on the face and body. Most infections resolve within two to four weeks, but some cases can be fatal, CDC said, especially for people with weakened immune systems.

Monkeypox is in the same family of viruses as smallpox, but it causes a milder infection, according to the C.D.C. The illness typically begins with flulike symptoms and swelling of the lymph nodes and develops into a widespread rash on the face and body. Most infections last two to four weeks.

Sources /www.nytimes.com, www.bbc.com, www.advisory.com, news.yahoo.com