CDC issues alert as more monkeypox cases confirmed

THE US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an alert urging doctors and state health departments to be vigilant for cases of monkeypox, as an unprecedented global spread of the virus raises alarm among public health authorities.

The alert comes after the agency confirmed a monkeypox case in Massachusetts. New York City officials are investigating a potential case. Federal officials say they expect to identify additional infections in the coming days.

Authorities had confirmed more than 70 cases of monkeypox across Europe as of yesterday. Other infections have been identified in Canada, where the Massachusetts patient had recently travelled, and Australia.

The World Health Organisation held an emergency meeting yesterday to look into the spread of the virus beyond western and central Africa, where it is typically seen.

A team of academics tracking cases, working with data initiative GlobalHealth, said the majority of confirmed infections had been reported in Spain, followed by England and Portugal.

Globally, there were more than 50 suspected cases that had not yet been confirmed.

Experts say the latest cases are unusual because of the level of spread among patients with no known travel history to Africa.

Two cases were detected in the US last year, in patients who had recently travelled to Nigeria.

‘‘We are seeing the virus emerging in new ways we have not seen it emerge before,’’ said Brett Petersen, deputy chief of

the CDC’s pox virus and rabies branch. ‘‘That is where a lot of the concern comes from.’’

The risk to the public remained low, health officials said.

Monkeypox is easier to contain than the Covid-19 coronavirus because it is harder to transmit, and current cases have been identified as the West African strain, associated with a milder illness that lasts two to four weeks.

Symptoms usually start with fever, aches and exhaustion, followed days later by a rash characterised by pus-filled bumps and lesions.

While there is no specific treatment for monkeypox, the CDC says antivirals used for smallpox could be effective against it. Patients exposed to monkeypox can also be given smallpox vaccines to reduce the severity of the disease because of its slow incubation period.

The proliferation of cases linked to men who have sex with men has surprised experts, because monkeypox has historically not been associated with those groups. The virus, while spread through close contact, is not seen as a sexually transmitted illness.

Because vaccines can be effective in the early days after exposure to the monkeypox virus, they can also be used as a tool to curb the spread.

‘‘The incubation period for monkeypox is so slow and prolonged you had a chance to boost the immunity,’’ said Michael Skinner, faculty in the department of infectious diseases at Imperial College London.

‘‘We’ve never seen this amount of spread person to person spread outside of Africa. So something new is going on,’’ said Eric Toner, a senior scholar the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security.