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The U.S. military has announced its first documented case of monkeypox after a service member tested positive for the virus in Germany.
“We can confirm that a duty service member from the Stuttgart military community recently tested positive for monkeypox,” Navy Capt. William Speaks, a spokesperson for the U.S. European Command, said in a statement Friday, according to NBC News.
The soldier, who has not been identified, is currently in isolation on base and being treated at the Stuttgart Army Health clinic.
“Public Health Officials have determined that the risk to the overall population is very low,” Speaks added. “As a precautionary measure, contact tracing is being done for clinic staff who interacted with the patient. The case in Stuttgart is of the West African strain, which is generally mild and human-to-human transmission is limited.”
WHO: MONKEYPOX BECOMING ‘ESTABLISHED’ IN NON-ENDEMIC COUNTRIES IS ‘REAL’ RISK
Monkeypox on a child in Nigeria
(Nigeria Centre for Disease Control via WHO)
Forty-five cases of monkeypox have been documented across the United States from Hawaii to the East Coast.
More than 1,300 cases have been found in about 30 other countries outside the areas of Africa where the virus is endemic.
TEXAS REPORTS FIRST CASE OF MONKEYPOX AS NATIONWIDE TALLY GROWS TO 35
On Monday, the Centers for DIsease Control and Prevention raised its alert level for monkeypox to level 2, warning people to practice “enhanced precautions.”
Two samples of suspected cases of monkeypox go through a process of nucleic acid extraction as they get tested at a microbiology lab at La Paz Hospital in Madrid, Spain, June 1, 2022.
(Reuters/Susana Vera)
People normally become infected with the monkeypox virus through contact with the skin lesions or bodily fluids of infected animals or humans or through contact with materials contaminated with the virus.
Although the majority of new monkeypox cases have been seen in gay or bisexual men, experts caution that anyone is at potential risk.
HUNDREDS OF MONKEYPOX CASES REPORTED WORLDWIDE: WHO
Monkeypox, which is related to smallpox, has milder symptoms that include fever, chills, rash and aches, before lesions develop.
Officials say the risk to the American public is low, but they are taking steps to assure people that medical measures are in place to deal with the growing problem.
A two-dose vaccine, Jynneos, is approved for monkeypox in the U.S.
The U.S. government has 72,000 Jynneos doses, and will get 300,000 more doses from its manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, over the next several weeks, said Dawn O’Connell, who oversees the government’s stockpile of emergency vaccines and treatments.
An employee of the vaccine company Bavarian Nordic works in a laboratory of the company in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, May 24, 2022.
(Reuters/Lukas Barth)
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On Friday, the government announced it had ordered 500,000 more Jynneos doses from Bavarian Nordic to be delivered late this year. The company also is holding other doses owned by the U.S. government, she said.
Fox News’ Julia Musto and Associated Press contributed to this report
