As the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus
drives surge in COVID-19 cases across the world, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and health officials in Dallas have initiated an
investigation of an unusual virus called ‘monkeypox’ in a traveller from
Nigeria, reports CNN.  

While the CDC and health officials believe that the
traveller from Nigeria flew into the US while infected and no one else in the
flight got infected by him, they have launched a probe.

The Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services
issued a statement saying: “The individual is a City of
Dallas resident who traveled from Nigeria to Dallas, arriving at Love Field
airport on July 9, 2021. The person is hospitalized in Dallas and is in stable
condition.”

DCHHS director Dr Philip Huang said that Dallas
authorities are working closely with the CDC and the Texas Department of State
Health Services and have interviewed the patient and close contacts.

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CDC said that it is working on contacting the traveller’s co-passengers on
two flights: Lagos, Nigeria, to Atlanta on July 8, with arrival on July 9; and
Atlanta to Dallas on July 9.

According to the CDC’s statement, travellers on these flights and in US
airports were required to wear masks due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Therefore, it is believed that the risk of monkeypox spread to others via respiratory
droplets is low.

A relative of small pox, monkeypox is regarded less transmissible and less
deadly. Rodents, as well as pet animals, can be carriers of monkeypox and
transmit it to people.

A small outbreak of monkeypox was reported in the US in 2003. 47 people
were infected with the virus. The viral outbreak was traced to a shipment of
small mammals from Ghana that were sold as pets.

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There was a smaller outbreak in Britain in 2018.

The symptoms of monkeypox include: fever, headache, muscle aches and
exhaustion, according to the CDC.

The main difference between monkeypox and
small pox is that monkeypox causes lymph nodes to swell but small pox does not,
the CDC said. But like small pox, monkeypox too causes skin blisters that
eventually scab over.

“The illness typically lasts for 2−4 weeks. In Africa, monkeypox has
been shown to cause death in as many as 1 in 10 persons who contract the
disease,” the CDC said.

The strain involved in the case detected in Dallas is regarded much less
deadly with a fatality ratio of 1 in a hundred people. A drug called cidofovir
can treat monkeypox infection, the CDC said.