All American Monkeypox patients clinically well; Center for Disease Control determines person-to-person contact as likely transmission vector

(KJCT) - In findings released Friday, the Center for Disease Control announced that Monkeypox has spread to nine total states in the U.S. All patients are currently clinically well, with recovery expected. The disease has also spread to 28 countries and territories outside of the United States.

Currently, the CDC has no conclusive evidence of where this iteration of Monkeypox came from, as all countries and regions experiencing outbreaks have no endemic Monkeypox virus, further confounding epidemiologists. The investigation by the CDC currently suggests that the disease is spread person-to-person through physical contact, with 16 out of 17 cases occurring in gay or bisexual men.

Post-exposure prophylaxis, an antiviral medication typically used for HIV management, has been shown to be effective in treating the virus along with other antiviral drugs. Antiviral drug stockpiles will be utilized and disseminated to control outbreaks as they occur.

Monkeypox is what is known as a “zoonotic” disease, meaning that it has a tendency to hop from animals to people and vice versa. However, the host animal for this iteration of the virus is not yet know, aside from the obvious human hosts.

A person is considered infectious from the onset of illness until all skin lesions have completely healed over with healthy skin. Human-to-human transmission occurs by direct bodily contact with infected fluids or lesions, or through respiratory secretions over a long exposure time. Typically, human-to-human transmission occurs between households or in communal living situations like prisons or homeless shelters, the CDC says.