Massachusetts officials confirm first human case of monkeypox – just as CDC issues warning that it is monitoring outbreak across Europe

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Health officials in Massachusetts have detected a monkeypox infection in a man who has recently returned from Canada.

Its Department of Health said the individual was hospitalized, but in a ‘good condition’. They are now tracing his close contacts.

It is the first confirmed infection with the virus in the U.S. this year, and comes a day after CDC officials said they were monitoring six potential cases.

These individuals sat within three rows of an infected patient on a flight from Nigeria to the UK on May 4, but the risk that they caught the virus remains ‘low’.

There appears to be no connection between these individuals and the case reported in Massachusetts. It is not clear how the man became infected.

There is a growing outbreak of monkeypox worldwide, with experts fearing the current case count could be just the tip of the iceberg.

There are 14 confirmed cases so far in Europe across the UK, Spain and Portugal. At least 24 people are also being probed for an infection.

The virus is more common in central and west Africa, where transmission generally results from direct contact with infected animals such as squirrels.

But the virus can also be spread via direct contact with infectious lesions in the skin, or from the coughs and sneezes of someone with a monkeypox rash.

Up to one in 10 cases are fatal, but the strain spreading globally is milder and thought to have a fatality rate of about one in 100 — similar to Covid’s at the start of the pandemic.

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