Florida health officials said Sunday they are investigating a suspected first case of monkeypox in the state.
The United States and other countries are closely monitoring the largest outbreak of the rare disease reported outside of Africa on record.
"The Florida Department of Health in Broward County and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating a suspected case of monkeypox in Broward County," the local agency said in a statement.
"This case is associated with international travel and the person is kept in isolation."
The department said it is taking steps to notify anyone who may have been exposed, saying "the risk of exposure remains low."
Broward County is located north of Miami.
[Biden says monkeypox cases are something to “worry about”]
Since the beginning of May, health authorities in several countries, from Europe to Canada, the United States and Australia, have begun detecting cases of monkey pox (
monkeypox
, in English), whose previous outbreaks had been very contained.
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The first official case of monkeypox in the United States this year was confirmed in Massachusetts last Wednesday.
A New York City resident also tested positive for the disease on Friday.
Symptoms of the illness are often flu-like and can include
fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, chills, exhaustion, and swollen lymph nodes.
Experts recommend seeing a doctor if there is a suspicion of being infected, especially if the person has been traveling in the last three weeks, which coincides with the incubation period of the disease.
The president, Joe Biden, said this Sunday that the recent cases of smallpox that have been detected in Europe and the United States
were something to “worry about”.
“It is a concern in the sense that if it were to spread it would have consequences,” Biden said in his first public comments on the disease.
As of this Sunday there were 92 confirmed cases worldwide and 28 suspects, including at least two in the United States.
Experts have warned that, although the current cases and their forms of contagion are still being studied, monkeypox does not constitute a threat to the health of the general public.
It is not clear how they contracted the disease
The CDC said this week that it is tracking multiple cases of monkeypox reported between early and mid-May in several countries that don't normally report cases of the disease.
"It's not clear how people in those groups were exposed to monkeypox, but the cases include people who identify themselves as men who have sex with men," the CDC said.
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The agency urged health care providers in the United States to "be vigilant for patients who have skin diseases consistent with monkeypox, regardless of whether they have traveled or have specific risk factors for monkeypox and regardless of gender." or sexual orientation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said this Sunday that it is necessary to wait for cases to continue to appear, whose focus and route of contagion have not yet been established.
"The situation is evolving in such a way that
the WHO believes that there will be more cases of monkeypox
being identified as surveillance is extended in countries that are not endemic," the organization said.
How should people take care of themselves, according to the CDC?
People who may have symptoms of monkeypox should contact their health care provider, the CDC warns.
This includes anyone who:
Traveled to countries in West or Central Africa, parts of Europe where smallpox cases have been reported, or other areas with confirmed cases during the month before symptoms began.
Has had contact with a person with confirmed or suspected monkeypox.
Be a man who regularly has close or intimate contact with other men.