In the first known case in the United States, a Californian man has tested positive for the mpox Clade 1b virus that’s currently running rife in Africa, and which has been categorised as an epidemic.
The patient, who had recently returned from East Africa, was diagnosed in San Francisco and is isolating at home, reports The New York Times.
Officials at the California Department of Public Health and at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are tracking down potential contacts of the patient for further testing.
The CDC said that at this stage, there was no evidence that Clade Ib is circulating in US communities, although infections in visitors returning from Africa have been found in Germany, Sweden, Thailand and the United Kingdom, among other countries.
A case in India was reported in a person returning from the United Arab Emirates. In Germany, Sweden, Thailand and India, the virus was transmitted no further, while in the UK, the infected individual passed mpox to three household contacts.
The Clade Ib subtype has devastated the Democratic Republic of Congo, and been widespread in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Rwanda and Uganda.
There have been more than 57 000 confirmed or suspected cases this year and nearly 1 200 deaths, many of them children.
Until recently, Clade Ib spread mainly through consumption of contaminated meat or close contact with infected animals and people. But last year, the virus was discovered to be spreading sexually, often through heterosexual prostitution.
The CDC has recommended that all people at risk, including sexually active gay and bisexual men, receive two doses of the Jynneos vaccine.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
UK identifies first cases of imported clade 1b mpox
Mpox vaccine doses head for Africa’s worst hit countries, including SA
Mpox: 'Nobody is safe until Africa is safe'