The World Health Organization does not have evidence that the monkeypox virus has mutated, a senior executive at the UN agency said on Monday, noting the infectious disease that is endemic in west and central Africa has tended not to change.
Rosamund Lewis, head of the smallpox secretariat which is part of the WHO Emergencies Programme, told a briefing that mutations are typically lower with this virus, although genome sequencing of cases will help inform understanding of the current outbreak.
In the United States, health authorities said they may have found a third case of the monkeypox virus and are running tests on a patient in South Florida to confirm if the person has contracted the disease, which is staging a rare outbreak 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 on Sunday, “and the person remains isolated.”
The results of tests conducted by the CDC are expected soon. No other cases have been identified in the state, the release said.
The first monkeypox case in the United States was reported in Massachusetts on Wednesday. The disease, which is similar to human smallpox but milder, was found in a man who had recently traveled to Canada. Health officials said the case posed no risk to the public.
The second US case was a New York City resident who tested positive for the virus on Friday, health officials said.
In Europe, more than 100 cases of the viral infection, which spreads through close person-to-person contact, have been reported recently.
Monkeypox, which mostly occurs in west and central Africa, is a viral infection that was first recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1970s. Symptoms include fever, headaches and skin rashes starting on the face and spreading to the rest of the body.
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LONDON — Scotland confirmed its first case of monkeypox on Monday, Public Health Scotland said in a statement, adding that the person was receiving treatment while their contacts were being traced.
“We are working with NHS Boards (National Health Service) and wider partners in Scotland and the UK to investigate the source of this infection. Close contacts of the case are being identified and provided with health information and advice,” said Nick Phin, Public Health Scotland’s Director of Public Health Science. — Reuters
