Posted on 06/21/2003 2:29:20 PM PDT by FairOpinion
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An estimated 87 people in the United States have caught monkeypox, mostly from infected pet prairie dogs, and about 20 have taken the smallpox vaccine to try to protect themselves, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.
CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said her agency and local health officials were investigating the response to the outbreak, which some have criticized as too slow.
Monkeypox broke out in the U.S. Midwest in early May, but the CDC was not notified until June 4 and did not report it publicly until June 7.
"I think all of the people involved at the state and local levels ... certainly share a concern that we look back at the monkeypox situation and make sure the system worked as effectively as it can," Gerberding told a news conference.
Doctors are supposed to be on top alert for monkeypox-like symptoms -- fever and a pox-like rash. They are also the symptoms of smallpox, and the United States is on the watch for a smallpox biological attack.
"In this case the first case of monkeypox transmission was known to have occurred at the site of a prairie dog bite," Gerberding said -- which lowered worries that some sort of terrorist attack was underway.
"But we would like to know about these situations when they occur so we can work as fast as possible," Gerberding said, adding that a monkeypox investigation might possibly have been started earlier.
"Why monkeypox appears to have been less severe in people in this country than in Africa is something we still don't have an answer to," she said. It could be that care is better, or Americans' underlying health is stronger.
NO U.S. MONKEYPOX DEATHS
No one in the United States has died of monkeypox, normally seen only in west and central African rain forests. In Africa it has a death rate of up to 10 percent.
There also is no evidence that monkeypox was transmitted from one person to another in the United States, as it has been in Africa.
Epidemics are not possible unless a germ is passed from one person to another.
Monkeypox, which can be carried by various rodents and other small animals, starts with a fever, chills and muscle aches -- just like influenza -- but a distinctive rash develops that soon oozes and then crusts over. Monkeypox can also resemble chickenpox, which is unrelated.
Gerberding said monkeypox has joined Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and West Nile Virus as a new disease coming to the United States from another part of the world. "All this part of a 'new normal' with infectious diseases," she said.
Studies suggest the smallpox vaccine protects about 85 percent of people from monkeypox. It can be given up to 14 days after exposure to prevent full-fledged infection or make infection milder.
"So far about 20 people have been vaccinated," Gerberding said.
She said the CDC has advice on its Web Site, http://www.cdc.gov, for pet owners concerned about monkeypox.
"There are many diseases that can be transmitted from household pets," she said. "Prairie dogs are susceptible to monkeypox. They are also susceptible to things like plague and tularemia so there is a hazard with regards to these animals. But they are by no means unique."
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I think this is an incorrect statement. Look at West Nile virus, you can have an epidemic, if you have a vector transmitting. And while in the US so far there are no proven cases of person to person transmission, in Congo, 73% of the cases were transmitted from person to person.
I think CDC is trying to cover themselves, but it's sort of like a kid who breaks a window saying "it wasn't a very big window, so what's the problem".
Considering that monkeypox symptoms are the same as smallpox symptoms, waiting two weeks to notify CDC really points out the inadequacy of local healthcare officials attitudes. Suppose it had been smallpox -- they didn't know it was monkeypox, until weeks later.
I think people are so afraid of calling in a false alarm, that they may miss a real attack with disastrous results.
This also points out why we need to make smallpox vaccinations available to people now, not 3 weeks after people start to get infected.
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