By Lauren Masters
Despite an increase of confirmed monkeypox cases transmitted from prairie dogs to humans in the Midwest, Utah remains unaffected by the disease and reports no animal or human infections.
Although Utah has a wild prairie dog population, the largest outbreak of monkeypox is in Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois. In Illinois, a distributor of exotic pets housed prairie dogs and Gambian giant rats together. The Gambian rats, shipped from Ghana, may have been infected with monkeypox, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The state, however, is on alert for the possibility an infected prairie dog may have been purchased at a swap meet and brought into Utah, said Justin Jones, a public information officer for the Utah County Health Department.
At a recent swap meet, three prairie dogs were sold and no records were made of who purchased them, Jones said. The CDC is urging all states to continue active surveillance for possible monkeypox outbreaks.
“Currently, there are no monkeypox cases identified in Utah,” Jones said. “Utah is not a state that has been identified as an affected state.”
The chance of Utah experiencing monkeypox outbreaks in the future is unknown, Jones said. Besides wild prairie dogs, reports of domestic prairie dogs used as pets have not been accounted for.
In the United States, health officials have reported a total of 71 possible cases to date, including 30 in Wisconsin, 22 in Indiana and 15 in Illinois, along with one each in Arizona and Kentucky. The number of confirmed human cases is 12, although no deaths have been reported.
The CDC recommended Wednesday that individuals either handling or caring for infected humans or animals should receive a smallpox vaccination as a protection against monkeypox. Both smallpox and monkeypox belong to the orthopoxvirus group of viruses and are treated with vaccinia, the smallpox vaccine.
Doctors are being advised to avoid vaccinating anyone who has not been directly exposed to monkeypox because of the possible serious side effects of vaccinia, including death, the CDC said. Utah County health officials are following those guidelines, Jones said.
“Pre-Iraq war, we recently did start giving smallpox vaccinations to a select group of teams, including people within the health department and in local hospitals to build up their smallpox resistance and allow them to treat people if they became infected with smallpox,” Jones said. “But there haven”t been any exposures to smallpox.”
Monkeypox is a milder form of smallpox and has not been reported in the United States until now, the CDC said. The disease originated in central and west Africa where researchers first discovered infected African rodents and squirrels.
Symptoms of the disease include swollen lymph nodes, a fever and headache, muscle aches, backaches and exhaustion. Patients develop a rash, characterized by raised bumps initially found on the face, that spreads to other parts of the body, the CDC said.
