Fort Bend County Investigates First Cases Of Monkeypox

Although monkeypox has been proven to not be the new pandemic of 2022 after the terrible outcome with COVID in 2019, it is still real and spreading. Fort Bend County health officials are investigating what seems to be the first case of it in the area.

Those suspected to have been contaminated have been isolated at home, including those who were briefly in contact with someone exposed to the virus. Fort Bend County Health & Human Services have reported that several positive cases are present according to preliminary lab results, and investigators have sent samples to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

“The confirmation of Monkeypox in Fort Bend County is something we take seriously, and our health and human services department has been prepared to respond to an occurrence since the virus was first found in the U.S. earlier this year,” County Judge KP George mentioned last week for the Fort Bend Star.

After the first cases of monkeypox started to appear in the United States, like the first cases in Dallas last month, there has been a slow rise in positive results for the virus. Some public health officials worry that the country may be in the midst of an outbreak, according to CNN.

There have been around 75 cases of monkeypox in Texas alone, according to health authorities. At the moment, investigators are working to identify who else might have been exposed to the virus, contact them, and inform them how to isolate properly.

It is important to remember that the virus is harder to catch than respiratory viruses like COVID. Monkeypox is transmitted after being in contact with an animal, human, or materials contaminated with the virus, usually via broken skin, respiratory tract, or mucous membranes.