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Two Health Workers May Have Contracted Monkeypox
Aired June 13, 2003 - 13:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, ANCHOR: For now, it may be the first human-to- human transmission of monkeypox in the United States. Officials in Wisconsin are investigating whether two healthcare workers caught the disease from patients.
Joining me now to talk about that, CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
So this is getting a little bit scarier now. This is not what we have seen in the past.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: A little scary, but I'll tell you why it's not so, so scary.
We've been talking about this disease going from animals to humans so far.
COLLINS: Right.
COHEN: As you said, this could possibly be human-to-human transmission.
But the first thing is to say the big word "if." Because these are two cases that have happened in Wisconsin. Specimens are going from those two people to the CDC labs here in Atlanta. They're due to arrive at the CDC today, and they should have results possibly within just 24 hours.
It is not known if these two healthcare workers, one a nurse and one a medical assistant, actually have monkeypox. In fact, we were told by a dermatologist who works in one of those offices that, in fact, they were told that it probably isn't monkeypox.
Monkeypox is actually pretty tough to spread human to human. It does happen in Africa, where this disease has been recognized for decades. It certainly happens, but it spreads a lot more easily from animal to human. So they don't think they're going to have, like, a SARS situation, where people are getting on planes and spreading this disease all over because it just doesn't spread that easily person to person.
Now you can see these lesions here. These are lesions that are typical of monkeypox but also typical of other diseases. So these two healthcare workers, who have each had at least one lesion, it could be something else. It could be a bacterial. It could be a whole bunch of other diseases. Now in the United States so far, there have been 54 possible cases of monkey virus in four different states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and New Jersey.
Almost all of those people had had contact with prairie dogs. There was also someone else who had contact with another animal who caught it from prairie dogs. Those prairie dogs appear to have gotten monkeypox when they were at a Texas facility with animals that have been imported from Africa. And so this disease originally came from Africa, were brought by a group of animals from Africa to Texas and then the prairie dogs went from Texas to the Midwest.
COLLINS: All right. So we should probably remind everybody about the symptoms, just in case they are in contact with prairie dogs.
COHEN: Right, exactly. And the people who need to worry about symptoms are, as you said, people who've been in contact with prairie dogs. If you haven't been near a prairie dog, you really do not need to worry about this disease.
Let's go over what some of those symptoms are: fever, cough, headache, muscle aches, rash, and enlarged lymph nodes. And by rash, we mean those lesions that we just saw earlier in that video.
And you know, you look at this list and say, "Gee, I've had that several times in my life." I mean, these are pretty general symptoms. Again, have you had contact with a prairie dog? If the answer is yes, then you should call your doctor.
COLLINS: All right. Some very good information, as always, Elizabeth Cohen. Thank you so much this morning. This afternoon. I keep saying morning. It's afternoon. Thanks again, Elizabeth.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 13, 2003 - 13:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, ANCHOR: For now, it may be the first human-to- human transmission of monkeypox in the United States. Officials in Wisconsin are investigating whether two healthcare workers caught the disease from patients.
Joining me now to talk about that, CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
So this is getting a little bit scarier now. This is not what we have seen in the past.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: A little scary, but I'll tell you why it's not so, so scary.
We've been talking about this disease going from animals to humans so far.
COLLINS: Right.
COHEN: As you said, this could possibly be human-to-human transmission.
But the first thing is to say the big word "if." Because these are two cases that have happened in Wisconsin. Specimens are going from those two people to the CDC labs here in Atlanta. They're due to arrive at the CDC today, and they should have results possibly within just 24 hours.
It is not known if these two healthcare workers, one a nurse and one a medical assistant, actually have monkeypox. In fact, we were told by a dermatologist who works in one of those offices that, in fact, they were told that it probably isn't monkeypox.
Monkeypox is actually pretty tough to spread human to human. It does happen in Africa, where this disease has been recognized for decades. It certainly happens, but it spreads a lot more easily from animal to human. So they don't think they're going to have, like, a SARS situation, where people are getting on planes and spreading this disease all over because it just doesn't spread that easily person to person.
Now you can see these lesions here. These are lesions that are typical of monkeypox but also typical of other diseases. So these two healthcare workers, who have each had at least one lesion, it could be something else. It could be a bacterial. It could be a whole bunch of other diseases. Now in the United States so far, there have been 54 possible cases of monkey virus in four different states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and New Jersey.
Almost all of those people had had contact with prairie dogs. There was also someone else who had contact with another animal who caught it from prairie dogs. Those prairie dogs appear to have gotten monkeypox when they were at a Texas facility with animals that have been imported from Africa. And so this disease originally came from Africa, were brought by a group of animals from Africa to Texas and then the prairie dogs went from Texas to the Midwest.
COLLINS: All right. So we should probably remind everybody about the symptoms, just in case they are in contact with prairie dogs.
COHEN: Right, exactly. And the people who need to worry about symptoms are, as you said, people who've been in contact with prairie dogs. If you haven't been near a prairie dog, you really do not need to worry about this disease.
Let's go over what some of those symptoms are: fever, cough, headache, muscle aches, rash, and enlarged lymph nodes. And by rash, we mean those lesions that we just saw earlier in that video.
And you know, you look at this list and say, "Gee, I've had that several times in my life." I mean, these are pretty general symptoms. Again, have you had contact with a prairie dog? If the answer is yes, then you should call your doctor.
COLLINS: All right. Some very good information, as always, Elizabeth Cohen. Thank you so much this morning. This afternoon. I keep saying morning. It's afternoon. Thanks again, Elizabeth.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
