A case of monkeypox has been detected in Pittsburgh, the infected patient’s primary care office said Wednesday in a statement.
The individual received testing for monkeypox at Central Outreach Wellness Center on the North Side, according to the statement, and the state Department of Health confirmed the result Tuesday.
The Allegheny County Health Department noted that the individual is not an Allegheny County resident.
The case in Pittsburgh brings the state’s total number of cases to five. There have been just over 300 cases diagnosed in the United States.
Monkeypox is not a new virus, and virologists have indicated that there is no need “to get crazy scared.”
The virus was first discovered in laboratory monkeys in the 1950s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it was reported in humans for the first time in 1970. A shipment of exotic rodents from Africa to the United States brought the virus to America in 2003.
Antivirals and vaccines previously used to treat the now-eradicated smallpox virus can treat and prevent monkeypox, health officials said. The vaccine is being made available to people with confirmed and presumed exposure to the virus.
Central Outreach Wellness Center has access to those treatment and vaccine options, according to a statement from the center.
Earlier this week, U.S. health officials expanded the group of people for whom vaccination against monkeypox is recommended.
“We will continue to take aggressive action against this virus,” Dr. Ashish Jha, White House covid-19 response coordinator, who has also been playing a role in how the government deals with monkeypox, said Tuesday.
The administration said it was expanding the pool of people who are advised to get vaccinated to include those who may realize on their own that they could have been infected.
The virus does not spread easily among people, and it is nowhere near as transmissible as covid-19, experts have said.
A person can’t get monkeypox by passing an infected person at the office or on the street, according to an Associated Press article. Transmission requires close physical contact or prolonged, intimate exposure to an infected person, or to their bedding or clothing. Hours of dancing in very close quarters could pass the virus; so could sexual contact. A significant number of the current reported cases appear to be linked to attendance at two raves in Europe.
The disease is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals. Last month, cases began emerging in Europe and the United States, and officials have said many who contracted the virus had traveled internationally. As of Tuesday, the U.S. had identified 306 cases in 27 states and the District of Columbia.
