Two probable cases of monkeypox are currently under investigation in Salt Lake County in Utah.
The Salt Lake County Health Department say both adults live in the same household.
Utah’s public health system expects confirmatory test results from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday.
The county says the duo became symptomatic after travelling internationally earlier this month to an area currently experiencing monkeypox cases. The county says both people are in isolation and do not present a risk to the public. They are experiencing mild illness and are expected to fully recover.
Typically, the virus causes fever, chills, rash and lesions on the face or genitals. Most people recover within several weeks without requiring hospitalization.
Vaccines against smallpox, a related disease, are effective in preventing monkeypox and some antiviral drugs are being developed. In recent years, the illness has been fatal in up to 6% of infections.
Monkeypox originates in wild animals like rodents and primates, and occasionally jumps to people. Most human cases have been in central and west Africa, where the disease is endemic.
The illness was first identified by scientists in 1958 when there were two outbreaks of a “pox-like” disease in research monkeys — thus the name monkeypox. The first known human infection was in 1970, in a 9-year-old boy in a remote part of Congo.
To date, WHO has recorded more than 90 cases of monkeypox in a dozen countries including Canada, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the U.S. and Australia. On Monday, Denmark announced its first case, Portugal revised its total upwards to 37, Italy reported one further infection and Britain added 37 more cases.
(Salt Lake County Health Department and The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
