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Monkeypox cases grow 37 { June 9 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35817-2003Jun9.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35817-2003Jun9.html
Alert Issued as U.S. Monkeypox Cases Grow to 37
Reuters
Monday, June 9, 2003; 5:05 PM
By Michael Conlon
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Officials in three states tried on Monday to track down pet prairie dogs believed spreading "monkeypox," a smallpox-like illness not seen before in the Western Hemisphere that may have infected 37 people.
Only six of the victims were being treated in hospitals, officials said, and they were expected to recover with bed rest. The disease, caused by monkeypox virus, is not believed to spread person-to-person.
But in light of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome scare and an approaching summer season when mosquito-borne West Nile virus was likely to again pose a deadly threat, health officials were moving to attack the newly diagnosed problem.
Stephen Ostroff of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Infection, said there were 33 confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox under investigation. Locally, officials listed more -- 22 in Wisconsin, 10 in Indiana and five in Illinois.
"We don't know how many animals or humans have been involved and we don't know the scope of the problem," Ostroff told reporters in Atlanta.
UNHEALED LESIONS
He said only people with unhealed lesions need to be quarantined and the infection does not appear to be as contagious as smallpox, showing no signs of spreading from person to person.
"We do not have evidence of person-to-person transmission, although we are looking at that possibility," said Ostroff. He advised people to consult a veterinarian or local health officials if they owned or had been exposed to a sick prairie dog, rabbit or Gambian giant rat.
It is believed the disease spread from Gambian rats imported from Africa as exotic pets. It spread from there to prairie dogs, members of the squirrel family that live in the dry plains from Texas north to Canada and which have been rescued from exterminators for use as pets.
Phil Moberly, co-owner of a pet store in the Chicago suburbs where some of the infected prairie dogs were believed to have become infected, said on Monday he had bought the apparently infected rats in question from a breeder in Texas without knowing they were ill.
SEARCH OF PRAIRIE DOGS
Indiana officials say they are trying to track down 31 individuals or businesses believed to have purchased prairie dogs from Moberly's store since April 15. Similar efforts were under way in the other two states.
In addition some of the animals may have changed hands during a swap meet in Wisconsin, where most of the cases of illness have been reported.
Mark Wegner, a communicable disease expert with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, said the disease is most likely being spread when people are scratched or bitten while handling the prairie dogs.
Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide and children born after 1980 have not been vaccinated against it. Smallpox vaccinations, however, offer protection against monkeypox, meaning that adults who were vaccinated earlier are most likely to have immunity against it.
Children, however, are at risk. In Africa, the mortality rate for young children can be as high as 10 percent.
© 2003 Reuters
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