While Chicago health officials stress the risk of monkeypox remains ‘low’, the city’s public health department announced it was advising the public to take precautions after five more cases were reported in the city.
In a press release Monday, the CDPH confirmed that at least seven cases have been identified in Chicago, a significant increase from the two cases reported in previous weeks. Health officials said seven cases involved people who had recently traveled to Europe, and the first two appeared to be linked to each other.
A Chicago resident was diagnosed with monkeypox after attending Mr. Leather’s international conference, which took place May 26-30 in the city, and other cases linked to the event have been reported.
Health experts have said monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious viral disease that often begins with flu-like symptoms and swollen lymph nodes and progresses to a rash on the face and body. It was first observed in Africa in 1970 and is usually found in the western and central parts of the continent.
The CDC is on high alert after cases of the virus were reported in several countries that don’t normally report cases of monkeypox, including the United States.
In a press release, CDPH Commissioner Dr Allsion Arwady said that although the risk is “low”, CDPH wants the public to make informed choices about gathering in places where monkeypox can occur. spread through close contact.
People attending festivals or other summer events should consider the possibility of close, personal skin-to-skin contact at events they plan to attend, health officials say. If anyone feels sick or develops a rash or sores, the CDPH recommends not attending a gathering and seeing a health care provider as soon as possible.
A total of 33 countries have reported more than 1,450 confirmed cases, and in the United States, 49 cases have been reported in 16 states plus the District of Columbia. Most people had mild symptoms and no one died.
“Normally in a normal year we would see a few cases, mostly in West Africa, associated with animals,” Arwady previously said. “There are animals that can carry them and we will see, you know, a couple dozen cases that people can get just from coming into contact with animals. And the reason for the heightened interest is that at this point there have been somewhere in the 100 cases that have been identified that are unrelated to the usual way we look at He’s got monkeypox. »
The virus is rarely fatal and symptoms range from fever, body aches and rashes all over the body.
The CDPH has stated that person-to-person transmission is possible through “close physical contact with monkeypox wounds, objects or wounds contaminated with fluids (clothing, bedding, etc.), or respiratory droplets after a face-to-face contact”.