Monkeypox: Texas becomes 14th state to confirm viral infection

DALLAS COUNTY, Texas — Texas health officials on Tuesday reported the state’s first confirmed case of monkeypox, bringing the nationwide total to 35 cases spanning 14 states and the District of Columbia, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

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Dallas County Health and Human Services confirmed in a news release that the patient, who lives in Dallas, had traveled internationally within the past month.

Per the health department, some people who had close contact with the patient have been identified, and health officials are working with the airline to contact people “on board a flight from Mexico to Dallas” who may have been exposed, KXAN-TV reported.

Related: Monkeypox: What is it, how dangerous is it, should you be concerned?

“We have been working closely with the CDC and the Texas Department of State Health Services and have conducted interviews with the patient and close contacts,” Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Dr. Philip Huang stated.

“We have determined that there is little known risk to the general public at this time,” he added.

In addition to fever, headache, back pain, muscle aches and low energy, monkeypox can also cause a rash and lesions on the face or genitals.

To date, Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington state and Washington, D.C., have each confirmed one monkeypox diagnosis. Meanwhile, Illinois and Utah have each confirmed two cases; Colorado has confirmed three cases; Florida has confirmed four cases; California has confirmed seven cases; and New York has confirmed eight cases, according to CDC data.

According to The Associated Press, a recent genetic analysis of monkeypox cases suggests two distinct strains may be circulating in the United States. The same strain caused many U.S. cases as recent cases in Europe, but a few samples show a different strain, federal health officials said on Friday.

>> Related: Monkeypox: CDC raises travel alert level after confirmed cases rise to 1,000 worldwide

As of Monday, 1,019 confirmed and suspected monkeypox had been reported across 29 countries since the beginning of 2022. The United Kingdom has reported the majority of those cases with 302 suspected and confirmed cases, followed by Spain with 198 infections, Portugal with 153 and Canada with 80, CNBC reported.

Monkeypox is a viral disease that was first discovered in 1958 in monkeys kept for research, according to the CDC. The first recorded human case of monkeypox was in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Historically, the disease has been deadly in 10% of people infected.

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