The Alameda County Health and Human Services agency reported Thursday the first probable case of monkeypox in a resident. This news comes after San Francisco reported its first case on June 4. The resident who tested positive had close contact with someone who also recently tested positive, the agency said.
The California Department of Public Health identified the case, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conducting additional testing to confirm it, Alameda County health officials said.
The number of confirmed cases in California has grown to eight, but the risk of monkeypox to the general population remains low. After New York, with 11 cases, California has the second-highest number of cases in the United States, the CDC said.
The virus spreads through direct contact with body fluids or sores on an infected person, or with materials such as clothing that have touched body fluids or sores, the CDC says. It presents as a vesicular rash, similar to chickenpox, and other symptoms can include fever, headache and chills.
“Monkeypox can occasionally be deadly, especially in poor places with inadequate health care,” UCSF said.
Infectious diseases expert Seth Blumberg recently said in a UCSF news story that it’s easier to control monkeypox than COVID.
“For one, monkeypox is not as transmissible, unless the biology has changed drastically, and that seems unlikely,” said Blumberg, an assistant professor of medicine at UCSF. “Secondly, it takes much longer for a monkeypox infection to develop within an individual and to become transmissible. Therefore, there is a greater opportunity to protect contacts. Third, monkeypox may not be very transmissible before its visible rash highlights the need for quarantine, while COVID can be transmitted before symptoms emerge and even in asymptomatic cases.”