4th Presumptive Monkeypox Case In Sacramento County; 6 Total In CA

SACRAMENTO, CA — Sacramento County public health officials have identified a fourth presumptive monkeypox case, bringing the state's total to at least six.

The county's Public Health department said Monday a sample's from the fourth case was sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation. Health departments use contact tracing to identify people who have been exposed to someone with an infectious disease. With each new case, contact tracing expands.

“This is an active investigation and contact tracing is ongoing,” Dr. Olivia Kasirye, the county's public health officer said in a statement. “The risk to the general public remains low.”

As Sacramento Patch previously reported, three cases in Sacramento County were previously confirmed by the CDC. Further details about the fourth case weren't immediately known.

A case was confirmed in Los Angeles County last week, followed by a case in San Francisco.

The World Health Organization said Sunday that more than two dozen countries that haven’t previously identified monkeypox cases reported 780 cases — a jump of more than 200 percent in cases since late May, The Associated Press reported. No monkeypox deaths outside of Africa have yet been identified.

The U.N. health agency said most cases in Europe and elsewhere have been spotted in sexual health clinics and “have involved mainly, but not exclusively, men who have sex with men.”

Health officials stress that anyone can get monkeypox. A heterosexual woman was among the U.S. cases under investigation, officials said.

WHO said the sudden monkeypox cases across numerous countries “suggests that there might have been undetected transmission for some unknown duration of time followed by recent amplifier events." Last month, a leading adviser to WHO linked the recent European outbreak and beyond to sex at two recent raves in Spain and Belgium.

Genetic analysis of recent monkeypox cases suggests there are two distinct strains in the U.S., health officials said Friday. While many U.S. cases were caused by the same strain as Europe's recent cases, a few samples indicated a different strain, federal health officials said. Each strain had been seen in U.S. cases last year, before the recent international outbreak.

Further study of many more patients will be needed to determine how long monkeypox has been circulating in the U.S. and elsewhere, said Jennifer McQuiston of the CDC.

“I think it's certainly possible that there could have been monkeypox cases in the United States that went under the radar previously, but not to any great degree,” she told reporters Friday. However, she added, “there could be community level transmission that is happening” in parts of U.S. where the virus has not yet been identified.

Symptoms of Monkeypox include: fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, and exhaustion. A rash develops up to three days (or sometimes longer) after a fever, often beginning on the face and then spreading to other parts of the body. Patients can see an incubation period (time from infection to symptoms) of usually seven to 14 days, but can range from five to 21 days. The illness typically lasts two to four weeks.

As of Friday, at least 20 cases were recorded across 11 states, including Massachusetts, Florida, New York, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.