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July 22, 2021

Andrew Campbell 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on July 16 that it is monitoring more than 200 people across the country for a rare monkeypox disease after a case was confirmed in July. According to the CDC, on July 9, a U.S. resident flew into Atlanta, Georgia, and then to Dallas, where he was hospitalized with the monkeypox virus after returning from Lagos, Nigeria. The health agency stated that it was working with Texas state officials as well as the airline with which the patient flew to contact passengers who may have been exposed to the virus.

Monkeypox is a rare viral disease that was discovered in research monkey groups in 1958, with the first human infection case reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970. Monkeypox cases have been reported in Israel, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Symptoms, which are milder than smallpox, usually appear seven to fourteen days after infection. The illness usually starts with a fever, then progresses to a headache, muscle ache, exhaustion, and swollen lymph nodes. After developing a fever, the patient will develop a rash that usually starts on the face and spreads.

The rash is composed of skin marks that begin as macules or a flat, discolored area of skin less than a centimeter wide. The macules rise to the skin surface and fill with fluid as a result. They then scab over and fall off as pustules, which are pimple skin bumps. The illness lasts for two to four weeks.

The CDC is currently monitoring more than 200 people in 27 states for possible monkeypox exposure, which has a three to 17-day incubation period in the United States. According to the CDC, monkeypox can kill up to one out of every ten people who contract it.