(Photo courtesy of UW Medicine]
Washington State now has its first confirmed case of Monkeypox. That case in King County involves a person Public Health Seattle-King County says did not need to go to the hospital and is now isolating at home. The health department is still trying to identify anyone who might have been exposed, but it says no one exposed is considered a possible positive case.
UW School of Medicine immunology professor, Doctor Michael Gale, says the virus hasn’t been studied enough to know exactly how it can move from one person to another, but he says the symptoms are similar to smallpox. “Rash, fever, not feeling well,” Gale says, “I think Monkeypox almost always gives swollen lymph nodes, so that’s a signal that there’s really something going on if your lymph nodes swell up.”
The Public Health Seattle-King County says a vaccine might be recommended for anyone who had close or intimate exposure to a person with Monkeypox. Doctor Gale says the smallpox vaccine might be as much as 90% effective at protecting them from Monkeypox.
Learn more about Monkeypox from Doctor Gale in the UW Medicine video below:
