Health authorities say they may have found a third case of monkey pox virus in USA and is conducting tests on a patient in South Florida to confirm whether he or she has a rare outbreak of the disease outside of Africa.
The case in Broward County, Florida, is “related to international travel,” the US Centers for Disease Control and the Florida Department of Health said in a statement Sunday, “and the person remains in quarantine. “
The results of tests conducted by the CDC are expected soon. No other cases have been identified in the state, the statement said.
The first US case of monkeypox was reported in Massachusetts on Wednesday. The disease, similar to human smallpox but milder, was discovered in a man who recently traveled to Canada. Health officials said the incident poses no risk to the public.
The second US case is a New York City resident who tested positive for the virus on Friday, health officials said.
In Europe, more than 100 cases of the virus, which are spread by person-to-person contact, have been reported recently.
Monkeypox, which occurs mainly in west and central Africa, is a viral infection first reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1970s. Symptoms include fever, headache, and rash. on the skin starting on the face and spreading to the rest of the body.
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
