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Apparent monkeypox case reported in Missouri

Jasen Shaw is the owner of Texas-based  U.S. Global Exotics, which deals in exotic pets including prairie dogs.
Jasen Shaw is the owner of Texas-based U.S. Global Exotics, which deals in exotic pets including prairie dogs.

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HEALTH LIBRARY
Mayo Clinic
MONKEYPOX
•The disease is usually found in remote villages in Central and West Africa.
•The disease was first discovered in laboratory monkeys in 1958.
•Monkeypox is related to the virus that causes smallpox. There is no vaccine but smallpox vaccinations might protect against monkeypox.
•Symptoms include a fever, headache, chills and a rash.
Sources: The Associated Press/World Health Organization

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Officials in Missouri reported Saturday what appears to be the state's first case of monkeypox.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin officials are expected to announce whether three cases of human-to human monkeypox transmission have been confirmed. The results of lab tests were completed Saturday but have not been made public.

In northwest Missouri, the 38-year-old victim bought a prairie dog from Phil's Pocket Pets, in Villa Park, Illinois, where a number of other infected prairie dogs were sold, said Mary Menges, administrator for communicable diseases at Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services.

"His prairie dog became ill and died; then he became ill," Menges said. The man's symptoms were typical of monkeypox, she said, and included fever, body aches, swollen lymph nodes and pustules.

Monkeypox symptoms also include chills and cough, followed by a rash and sometimes diarrhea, sore throat and mouth sores.

Because the symptoms are so common, monkeypox is easily confused with other illnesses.

On Saturday, the CDC issued new case numbers for the disease. As of Saturday morning, before the Missouri case was reported, 79 cases were being investigated, 17 of them confirmed, said CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben. They include: 34 in Wisconsin, 17 in Illinois, 26 in Indiana and two in Ohio, she said.

The man, who has not been identified publicly, has agreed to remain isolated in his home, and "he is doing quite well," Menges said.

The man will remain isolated until his symptoms are gone and the monkeypox scabs have fallen off, which could take two to three weeks, she said.

Tissue samples taken from the man have been sent to the CDC in Atlanta for confirmation, "but on our preliminary test it was positive," she said.

Human-to-human results pending

The CDC has completed lab tests on three suspected cases of human-to-human transmission from Wisconsin, Harben said, but those results must be made public by state officials. No one responded to calls to the Wisconsin Department of Health.

If the three cases are confirmed as monkeypox, they would be the first known cases of human-to-human transmission of the disease in the United States, according to the CDC.

Wisconsin's state epidemiologist and chief medical officer for communicable diseases said the reported illnesses "do not appear to be cases of monkeypox."

Dr. Jeff Davis said a medical assistant and a nurse became ill after coming into contact with other patients with monkeypox. The nurse's boyfriend also came down with symptoms, he said.

The patients were part of an outbreak of the illness in the Midwest traced to infected prairie dogs sold as pets. At least 84 suspected cases have been reported, none of them fatal, according to the CDC.

Although the three cases in Wisconsin are probably not monkeypox, Davis cautioned that "it's not to say [human-to-human transmission of the virus] does not occur, and precautions must be taken."

Infected children

About 16 children at a day care center in Adams County, Indiana, as well as the woman who runs the center, are among the suspected cases of monkeypox in that state, said Dr. Brian Zurcher, a health officer for Adams County. The owner's daughter has been hospitalized and is "extremely ill," he said.

None of the other children was hospitalized, and all have recovered, he said.

The family that owns the center had bought two prairie dogs that had come from the contaminated group, and used them to entertain and teach the 18 children enrolled there, he said. He would not identify the center.

"About 80 percent of the children in the day care had some signs or symptoms consistent with monkeypox," Zurcher said.

Specimens from the children were sent to the CDC.

The monkeypox outbreak is believed to have begun with a shipment of more than 800 rodents, including 50 Gambian giant pouched rats, from Africa to a distributor in Texas. The rats are believed to have passed the disease to the prairie dogs, which were then sold or traded in the Midwest.

No human deaths have been reported, though the disease typically has a 1 percent to 10 percent fatality rate in Africa.


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