Monkeypox is Spreading: 2 New Cases Confirmed in Louisiana

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It was just last week when Louisiana health officials announced that they had discovered our state's very first case of Monkeypox.  Now, those same officials are reporting that 2 new cases of the exotic virus have just been found, confirming what health care professionals have feared: Monkeypox is spreading in Louisiana.

According to the official press release from the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), officials in Region 1 (which consists of Orleans, Plaquemines, Jefferson, and St. Bernard parishes) have confirmed those new cases bringing the total to 4 cases discovered just this month.  This is on top of the 20 cases discovered in Texas during the first week of July.

The spread of this disease has quietly been accelerating with a whopping 866 confirmed cases of Monkeypox infections spanning 40 states just since May of this year.  Officials are trying to get ahead of this wave of cases in order to inform the public about what the disease is and how to avoid it.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Monkeypox is a virus that is spread from person to person through direct, skin-to-skin contact - especially when it comes to the lesions that pop up on infected individuals.  It can also be spread by the water droplets in an infected person's breath during extended "face-to-face," contact.  According to the CDC's data, symptoms include:

• Fever
• Headache
• Muscle aches and backache
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Chills
• Exhaustion
• A rash that can look like pimples or blisters that appears on the face, inside the mouth, and on other parts of the body, like the hands, feet, chest, genitals, or anus.

The CDC is currently tracking an outbreak of Monkeypox in several countries that typically don't have an issue with the spread of this virus - including the United States.  Work to mitigate the spread of this disease includes educating the public on how to avoid it and a vaccine that could help prevent infection.