- Public Health Investigation Uncovers First Outbreak of
Human Monkeypox Infection in Western Hemisphere
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- Public health officials from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) and the states of Wisconsin, Illinois and
Indiana have reported the first outbreak of human infections with a monkeypox-like
virus to be documented in the Western Hemisphere. Thus far, 19 cases have
been reported: 17 in Wisconsin, one in Northern Illinois, and one in Northern
Indiana. All patients who have become ill reported direct or close contact
with ill prairie dogs.
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- CDC is advising physicians, veterinarians, and the public
to report instances of rash illness associated with exposure to prairie
dogs, Gambian rats and other animals to local and state public health authorities.
CDC also has issued interim recommendations for infection control calling
for health care personnel attending hospitalized patients to follow standard
precautions for guarding against airborne or contact illness. Veterinarians
examining or treating sick rodents, rabbits and such exotic pets as prairie
dogs and Gambian rats are advised to use personal protective equipment,
including gloves, surgical mask or N-95 respirator, and gowns.
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- The prairie dogs were sold by a Milwaukee animal distributor
in May to two pet shops in the Milwaukee area and during a pet "swap
meet" (pets for sale or exchange) in northern Wisconsin. The Milwaukee
animal distributor obtained prairie dogs and a Gambian giant rat that was
ill at the time from a northern Illinois animal distributor. Investigations
are underway to trace the source of animals and the subsequent distribution
of animals from the Illinois distributor. Preliminary information suggests
that animals from this distributor may have been sold in several other
states.
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- Human monkeypox is a rare, zoonotic, viral disease that
occurs primarily in the rain forest countries of Central and West Africa.
It is a member of the orthopox family of viruses. In humans, infection
with monkeypox virus results in a rash illness similar to but less infectious
than smallpox. Monkeypox in humans is not usually fatal. The incubation
period is about 12 days. Animal species susceptible to monkeypox virus
may include non-human primates, rabbits, and some rodents.
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- Scientists at the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wisconsin,
recovered the first viral isolates from a patient and a prairie dog. Through
examination with an electron microscope they demonstrated a poxvirus.
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- Physicians should consider monkeypox in persons with
fever, cough, headache, myalgia, rash, or lymph node enlargement within
3 weeks after contact with prairie dogs or Gambian giant rats. Veterinarians
examining sick exotic animal species, especially prairie dogs and Gambian
giant rats, should consider the possibility of monkeypox. Veterinarians
should also be alert to the development of illness in other animal species
that may have been housed with ill prairie dogs or Gambian giant rats.
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- Local, state, and federal agencies and private institutions
that have participated in this investigation to date have included the
Marshfield Clinic and Marshfield Laboratories, Froedtert Hospital and Medical
College of Wisconsin, the City of Milwaukee Health Department and at least
10 additional health departments in Wisconsin and Illinois, the Wisconsin
Division of Public Health, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and
Consumer Protection and Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, the Illinois
Department of Public Health, the Illinois State Department of Agriculture,
the Indiana State Department of Health, and the US Department of Agriculture.
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- Note to Editors: For electron microscope images, please
see
- http://research.marshfieldclinic.org/crc/prairiedog.asp
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- For additional information about monkeypox, see
- http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no3/hutinG1.htm
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- http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r030607.htm
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