With monkeypox in the news, we turned to Kenneth Alexander, M.D., Ph.D., a UCF College of Medicine professor and chief of Infectious Diseases at Nemours Children\u2019s Health, for the information you should know.<\/p>\n
Monkeypox virus causes fever, swollen lymph nodes and painful blister-like lesions (pox) on the skin and mucous membranes. While its origins are unknown, the natural host of the monkeypox virus is probably Central African rodents. Human cases of monkeypox are rare and have historically resulted from animal-to-human transmission.\u00a0 In 2017, public health officials found evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, which occurred through intimate and household contact.<\/p>\n
Monkeypox lesions often appear on the hands, face, mouth, and anogenital region.\u00a0 The lesions are fluid- or pus-filled and painful (unlike moderate acne, which is painless).<\/p>\n
Monkeypox is less infectious than COVID-19 or influenza. Monkeypox spreads most readily through direct contact with monkeypox lesions and infected body fluids. Direct contact typically occurs in household settings, and between intimate partners, including kissing, hugging, prolonged face-to-face contact and sexual contact. Transmission can also occur from contact with shared unwashed eating utensils, bedding, towels and personal items. You will not catch monkeypox at the grocery store, riding public transportation, or walking by someone who just sneezed or coughed.<\/p>\n
So far, the U.S. has about 13,000 cases of monkeypox. Almost all transmissions have occurred by intimate or household contact. Florida has about 1,300, including seven children who live in homes where an adult had the virus.<\/p>\n
Anyone can get monkeypox. So how do you protect yourself? Here are Alexander\u2019s recommendations:<\/p>\n
A UCF College of Medicine professor and chief of Infectious Diseases at Nemours Children\u2019s Health provides insight on the virus and suggestions for protection against it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":130732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,12],"tags":[979,22543],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-130733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-health","tag-college-of-medicine","tag-healthcare"],"yoast_head":"\n