San Mateo County health officials announced Saturday that they have reported the first known case of clade I mpox in California and the United States.
According to the San Mateo County Health Department, a person became infected with clade I mpox after traveling to eastern Africa. This strain is currently occurring in eastern Africa. Another strain of mpox, called clade II, has been circulating in the United States since 2022.
San Mateo County health officials added that the person’s symptoms were mild and he is currently recovering at home. The county is also conducting contact tracing for anyone who may have come into contact with the infected person.
Officials said the threat of clade I mpox to the public remains low at this time.
“The risk to the general population is low,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco. “About four to seven days after exposure, people experience flu-like symptoms such as headaches, muscle aches, and fever. But two to three days later, the boils that people will be seeing starting in 2022 start forming. .”
The United States is the sixth country outside Africa to detect the Clade I strain, which can cause more severe illness than the type of virus that was prevalent in 2022, according to the CDC.
The World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency in August as the strain spread to several African countries, marking the second introduction of mpx in two years.
Chin-Hong said it is unclear how the new strain will spread in the United States, but some experts believe it could spread among the same sexual networks as Clade II in 2022. I expect there will be.
“What we see in 2022 is primarily limited to men having sex with men,” he said.[I]If you can hit the first shot, be sure to land the second one. ”
#breaking news The first case of the new MPOX strain was detected in San Mateo County. This is the first time “clade I mpox” has been discovered in the United States. The patient is believed to have contracted the infection while traveling abroad. The patient is isolated at home due to “mild symptoms”… pic.twitter.com/U70KGT4sG3
— John Zucheri (@tvzuke) November 16, 2024
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