Arkansas health officials identified monkeypox case

So let me just start by saying, I’m dr jennifer Dillehay, I’m the director and state health officer here at the Arkansas Department of Health and it’s J E N N I F E R D I L L *** H ***. So I think you all have the press release. Um so we have um our first case of monkey pox uh in an Arkansas resident that we are reporting, I regret that I cannot give you any details about the case. But I can’t talk about monkeypox. You can’t talk about the case but could give location or region or part of Arkansas. I cannot give the location of the case. Okay, so there’s one single one right now. Yes. Okay. And how are they? Go ahead please? I’m sorry, say it again. How are they getting reported? How does it get up to you? So um whenever there’s *** test done and the test is positive, then the test is reported to the Arkansas Department of Health. And what is the reasoning behind not being slightly more specific other than generally just the state of Arkansas. Well, um it potentially could identify the patient. So we’re not able to say Northwest Arkansas, Northeast Arkansas Central Arkansas Delta. Any of those would be too specific in your opinion? Okay, another question about monkeypox, why don’t you go ahead and walk through the symptoms of what we need to be looking out for if you would. Sure. So monkey pox is *** virus that is primarily transmitted by close contact, be contact with the uh rash, the rash is very infectious and the once *** person gets infected with the virus, it may take several days *** week to two weeks to develop the symptoms, these symptoms are fever. Uh huh. Just feeling badly, fatigue malaise. It also could include uh let me think about this uh muscle pain, headache, just generalized symptoms of being infected. And then there is the rash and the rash starts out as kind of *** flat um rash and then it develops what we call vesicles which are um ah bumps that have clear fluid in them. And then they turn into pustules which have pus in them. And then they will scab over and then once they scab over and there’s new skin under where the rash was, then they would no longer be contagious. Up until the time of that rash surfacing. Is there any way for somebody to know the difference between that and covid? So let’s say they take *** test and the test is negative. Could there be confusion in there? Well, that is one of the difficulties. It um you know, when someone has *** fever, headache and feeling just generally poorly muscle aches, it could be *** whole number of things. So that’s when it’s helpful to get testing for other things as well. This rash sometimes is confused or hard to tell in the beginning from other illnesses that cause rashes such as chickenpox or um hey, you know, because in the beginning the rash doesn’t look typical as the rash. The rash evolves, it looks more and more like typical monkey pox. So if *** healthcare provider has seen photos of it, they may recognize it, but in general it would be helpful for people when they uh begin with these symptoms to talk to their healthcare provider and get appropriate symptoms to rule in or rule out or rule out various uh illnesses. Dr Dylan, I’m sorry, Do we have any sort of idea of how this person contracted monkeypox? Was it from traveling? Was it from interacting with another individual stateside? Who had monkeypox? So, I can’t give specifics about this case. Uh in the United States in general, um people have acquired monkeypox uh in locations that they have traveled to, as well as social networks that they are part of and interact with. So uh in the beginning of course it was more people who had international travel, but now it is spreading within the United States. So uh international travel is not as an important factor in deciding whether or not to test for monkeypox, but you can’t confirm whether this person got it stateside or internationally? No, I can’t give any information about this case right now. And with the July four holiday, *** lot of people traveling record numbers as the pandemic just behind us. Are you sort of bracing, what are you thinking in the days ahead, given all that contact and travel? Well, just simply traveling is not *** risk factor, Someone would have to have close contact with someone who has the rash uh and it would be either skin to skin contact or close contact with um the clothing or could be sheets. You know something that has put the rash and then someone else touches that. But it’s not just and easy pass by kind of touch, It’s going to be prolonged touch and that’s an important factor. So it is unlikely that someone would have acquired this rest…