NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG, AFP) - Ten people in New York City likely have monkeypox.
The city's health department said 10 people tested positive for Orthopoxvirus and that all are presumed to be monkeypox.
"Most of these people have had mild cases, have not been hospitalised and have recovered on their own," an update on the city's health website says.
Current cases are primarily spreading among men who have sex with men, the update says, but notes that anyone can get and spread the disease.
As at Friday (June 10), there are 11 presumed monkeypox cases in New York state, 10 of which have been identified in New York City, and one more was identified elsewhere in the state, according to state health officials.
The state's health department is coordinating with local providers, including hospitals, sexual health clinics and dermatologists, to ensure the latest information about the outbreak reaches facilities where patients may present with symptoms of monkeypox, which can look very similar to common infections such as herpes and syphilis.
Once monkeypox cases are identified, patients are told to isolate and health officials start the contact tracing process.
Because so few cases have been identified thus far - in comparison to the number of Covid-19 cases - health officials are able to do manual contact tracing that focuses on identifying high-risk individuals. And in most cases, symptoms also resolve on their own within a couple of weeks.
The good news is that "this is a very different virus from Covid-19", said Assistant Professor Bryon Backenson, the state health department's Bureau of Communicable Disease Control.
"It's controllable by behaviour, for the most part. You can't just walk into a room and get monkeypox."
Meanwhile, Brazil has confirmed its first case of monkeypox in a 41-year-old man who had travelled to Europe, the Health Ministry announced on Thursday (June 9).
Monkeypox is a rare disease generally confined to western and central Africa. It is related to but less severe than smallpox, causing a rash that spreads, fever, chills and aches, among other symptoms.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has already registered nearly 1,000 cases of the illness in 29 countries where it is not endemic. Most of them have been detected in Britain, Canada, Germany, Portugal and Spain.
The first Brazilian person infected had travelled to both Spain and Portugal, the Health Ministry said in a statement. He was hospitalised for treatment and was in "good condition", it said, adding that his close contacts were under observation.
Brazil is the third Latin American country to register monkeypox cases after Argentina and Mexico.
So far, the WHO says no deaths have been reported in countries where monkeypox is not endemic.
