U.S. monkeypox case reported, as Spain, Portugal report infections in growing outbreak

U.S. monkeypox case reported, as Spain, Portugal report infections in growing outbreak Two more European countries reported unusual monkeypox cases on Wednesday, a development that suggests an outbreak first spotted in the United Kingdom is more widespread than first believed. Helen Branswell STAT

The United States confirmed a case of monkeypox infection on Wednesday in a man who recently traveled to Canada. It is not yet clear if the man, who lives in Massachusetts and who traveled to Canada by car, is connected to the growing outbreak of monkeypox cases in Europe.

The case was announced in a statement posted to the website of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Confirmatory testing was done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which had warned earlier Wednesday that cases in this country were likely to begin to be detected.

“Given that we have seen now confirmed cases out of Portugal, suspected cases out of Spain, we’re seeing this expansion of confirmed and suspect cases globally, we have a sense that no one has their arms around this to know how large and expansive it might be. And given how much travel there is between the United States and Europe, I am very confident we’re going to see cases in the United States,” said Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the CDC’s division of high consequence pathogens and pathology.

McQuiston said in an email Wednesday that it has not yet been determined if the Massachusetts case was part of the growing European outbreak.

The development adds the United States and possibly Canada to a growing list of countries reporting monkeypox cases in an outbreak first spotted in the United Kingdom. ...

ALSO SEE: Explainer: Why monkeypox cases are spreading in Europe, US