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CHICAGO - Health officials investigating an outbreak of monkeypox that apparently spread from pet prairie dogs to people in three Midwestern states said Monday the number of possible cases has risen to at least 40. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported four confirmed human cases Monday of monkeypox, a smallpox-related virus that has never before appeared in the Western Hemisphere. Seven people have been hospitalized; no one has died. Steve Ostroff, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for Infectious Diseases, said he expects the numbers to rise as human and animal samples are tested. But Ostroff said...

PRINT THIS STORY | E-MAIL THIS STORY U.S. bans prairie dog sale, trade Smallpox vaccine recommended to control spread of exotic disease By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press June 12, 2003 ATLANTA - The U.S. government banned the sale of prairie dogs, prohibited the importation of African rodents and recommended smallpox shots Wednesday for people exposed to monkeypox, the exotic African disease that has spread from pet prairie dogs to humans. The government's aggressive response to the disease came the same day that the federal investigation of the monkeypox outbreak was expanded to eight more states, including Tennessee, bringing the total...

Monkeypox cases 'will go up' June 11, 2003 BY DAN ROZEK, Staff Reporter As more suspected human cases of monkeypox virus were reported in Illinois, state officials said Tuesday they've found only about half of the estimated 130 prairie dogs sold by the Villa Park dealer whose animals may be linked to the nation's first outbreak of the rare African disease. And the illness, which had been limited to Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, may have turned up in a new state as New Jersey health officials said an 11-year-old boy there apparently has been sickened by the virus. But the...