Virginia Reports Case of Monkeypox, State's First in Recent Uptick

- Washington Post, May 26, 2022.

Virginia public health officials on Thursday reported the state’s first presumed case of monkeypox, in a Northern Virginia woman who had recently traveled to an African country. The case is among nine recently identified in seven states, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters Thursday morning.

The state lab identified the case, and as of Thursday afternoon, the Virginia Department of Health was awaiting CDC confirmation. The patient was not symptomatic and therefore not infectious during travel, state officials said. She did not require hospitalization and is isolating at home. The health department identified her close contacts, who are primarily health-care providers, and is monitoring them.

State Health Commissioner Colin M. Greene stressed that, despite the national uptick, monkeypox is a very rare disease in the United States and that the Virginia patient does not pose a public health risk. “Transmission requires close contact with someone with symptomatic monkeypox, and this virus has not shown the ability to spread rapidly in the general population," he said.

What is monkeypox, the rare virus now confirmed in the U.S. and Europe? Monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious viral illness that typically begins with flu-like symptoms and swelling of the lymph nodes and progresses to a rash on the face and body, the state said in a news release. Symptoms generally appear seven to 14 days after exposure and usually clear up within two to four weeks. The first case in the U.S. this year was identified last week in Massachusetts, in a resident who had recently traveled to Canada, where cases are also rising. Since then, cases have been identified in Florida, Utah, New York, Washington state and California...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/26/monkeypox-virginia-cases-travel-vaccine/