7 new monkeypox cases push Sacramento County total to 21 as contact tracing continues
Health officials reported seven new probable cases of monkeypox in Sacramento County residents on Monday, bringing the county’s total to 21 likely or confirmed infections since late May.
The county has reported 13 cases in the past week: two cases last Tuesday and four Wednesday, prior to Monday’s seven.
Investigations and contact tracing for the seven latest cases are ongoing, according to county health spokeswoman Samantha Mott.
“It appears some are connected to previously reported Sacramento County cases and identified though contact tracing,” Mott said in an emailed response to The Sacramento Bee.
“Some are individuals who have presented to healthcare providers with symptoms.”
The county in a news release announcing Wednesday’s four cases said all four were exposed via domestic travel to other states in the U.S.
Sacramento County health officials announced the first resident monkeypox case May 24, in a person who recently returned from international travel, followed by four additional cases linked via contact tracing.
At least seven of the next nine local cases after those five were tied to domestic travel, according to county health officials. Before last Tuesday, the county had gone 19 days without reporting a new monkeypox case.
Testing expands, along with vaccine clinics
The increase in cases comes as testing programs for monkeypox are expanded nationwide in an effort to limit the outbreak.
The Sacramento County health office earlier this month announced that it was “expanding preventative vaccine availability criteria to include MSM (men who have sex with men) and/or transgender (people) at high risk of exposure to monkeypox.”
“Individuals who meet high-risk criteria may benefit from getting a two-dose monkeypox vaccine as a form of prevention,” county health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said in a statement last week.
At least 113 total first and second doses of the two-dose monkeypox vaccine had been given to Sacramento County residents at the beginning of last week, Mott said previously. Another 120 first-dose vaccinations were administered at a Sunday clinic.
County health officials have administered 296 doses and redistributed an additional 875 to community partners, Mott said. Pucci’s Pharmacy in East Sacramento is scheduling first-dose appointments this week on its website.
Quest Diagnostics last week announced it has begun to offer testing for monkeypox across most of the U.S. The company developed a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test — the same form of testing used to lab test for COVID-19 — that is now available in every state except New York, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a Wednesday news release.
Another lab company, Sonic Healthcare USA, has begun testing for monkeypox using the CDC’s orthopox test, the CDC said Monday.
Quest’s tests are processed at a lab in California. Sonic’s are processed in Texas.
“Anyone with a rash should talk to their healthcare provider about whether they need to get tested, even if they don’t think they had contact with someone who has monkeypox,” CDC officials wrote. “Healthcare providers can order monkeypox virus testing from Quest as they normally would order other tests.”
The California Department of Public Health, in its most recent update Thursday, reported 250 probable and confirmed monkeypox cases statewide, up from 141 one week earlier. Sacramento County’s first confirmed case from late May was also the state’s first.
Monkeypox has been found across several counties in the Bay Area, Southern California, Northern California and the Central Valley. Butte County on Monday disclosed its first probable case of monkeypox in a resident.
CDC data updated Friday listed 1,814 total cases across 43 U.S. states plus D.C. and Puerto Rico, nearly doubling the nationwide total reported three days earlier. The CDC reported New York with the most at 489 cases, followed by California with 266, Illinois with 174 and Florida with 154.
More than 12,500 cases have been confirmed globally across 68 countries, according to the CDC’s Friday numbers.
How is monkeypox spread?
Spread of monkeypox is linked to prolonged, skin-to-skin exposure, according to experts.
Symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. The patient typically develops a rash, often beginning on the face and spreading to other parts of the body, normally about one to three days after fever.
The incubation period is typically one to two weeks but can range up to three weeks, and the illness typically lasts two to four weeks, according to a county news release.
Doctors and public health officials urge residents to practice safe sex. These practices may include abstaining from sex, practicing monogamy and using condoms during sex to limit exposure to the virus.
This story was originally published July 18, 2022 at 1:46 PM.
