Health Officials Confirm Multiple Cases of Monkeypox in Anne Arundel County
Monkeypox can be spread through:
- Direct skin-to-skin contact with rash lesions
- Sexual/intimate contact, including kissing
- Living in a house and sharing a bed with someone
- Sharing towels or unwashed clothing
- Respiratory secretions through prolonged face-to-face interactions (mainly happens when living with or caring for someone who has monkeypox)
Monkeypox is NOT spread through:
- Casual conversations
- Walking by someone with monkeypox, like in a grocery store
- Touching items like doorknobs
Monkeypox may start with symptoms like the flu, such as a fever, low energy, swollen lymph nodes and general body aches. Within 5 to 12 days after the appearance of fever, the person can develop a rash or sores. Sores will go through several stages, including scabs, before healing. They can look like pimples or blisters and may be painful and itchy.
Other symptoms may include:
- Fever
- Chills
- Body aches
- Headaches
- Sores/Rash
Please call your medical provider if you think you may have been exposed to monkeypox and are showing signs and symptoms.
In most cases, monkeypox will resolve on its own. There are no treatments specifically for monkeypox virus infections. However, monkeypox and smallpox viruses are genetically similar, which means antiviral drugs and vaccines developed to protect against smallpox may be used to prevent and treat monkeypox virus infections. Antivirals, such as tecovirimat (TPOXX), may be recommended for people who are more likely to get severely ill, like patients with weakened immune systems.
A number of ways to prevent spreading monkeypox:
- Talk to sexual partners about any recent illness and be aware of new or unexplained sores or rashes on you or your partner’s body.
- Limit the number of sexual partners.
- Avoid close contact, including sex of any kind, kissing or prolonged touching people with symptoms like sores or rashes.
- Practice safe sex by using condoms or other barrier methods the right way and using a new condom or other barrier method every time you have sex.
- Practice good hand hygiene.
- Isolate infected persons until symptoms, including rash, have gone away completely
- Use appropriate PPE, like a mask, gown and gloves, when caring for others with symptoms.
- Avoid contact with infected materials, such as towels, clothing, sheets, fetish gear, sex toys and toothbrushes.
- Avoid contact with infected animals.
On June 28, 2022, the Federal Monkeypox Vaccination Plan was released outlining the nationwide monkeypox vaccination strategy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the JYNNEOS vaccine for preexposure prophylaxis for individuals 18 years of age and older who have been identified as being high-risk. High risk individuals include:
- Known contacts who are identified by public health via case investigation, contact tracing and risk exposure assessments.
- Presumed contacts who may meet the following criteria:
- Know that a sexual partner in the past 14 days was diagnosed with monkeypox.
- Had multiple sexual partners in the past 14 days in a jurisdiction with known monkeypox.
As the elections approach we will care very much as to how you process voting and very little about monkey Pox.
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