The Kanawha-Charleston Health Department identified one probable case of monkeypox earlier this week and has tested another person suspected of having the virus. Public Health Officer Dr. Steven Eshenaur is encouraging people not to panic and to learn more about the disease.
“Monkeypox is rare and is typically not fatal,” Eshenaur explained. “It spreads mostly through close, skin-on-skin contact. It doesn’t spread easily through the air like COVID-19 does and because of this, the threat to our community is relatively low.”
Eshenaur, who is a board-certified family physician and experienced emergency room doctor, performed the exams himself. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will conduct tests to confirm diagnosis, having already confirmed one case from Berkeley County earlier this month. Since May 18, 2022, the CDC has confirmed 4,639 cases of monkeypox in the United States.
Monkeypox symptoms include fever, headache, chills, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, and a rash that can look like pimples or blisters that appear on the face, inside the mouth and on other parts of the body – hands, feet, chest, genitals or anus.
“If you have symptoms you should certainly check in with your healthcare provider,” he said. “It’s a scary-sounding and unpleasant-looking illness, but the chances of most of us getting it are quite low, and if we do get it, there are treatments available.”
Not everyone will need the monkeypox vaccine, Eshenaur added. West Virginia received only 213 vaccines in the first wave of distribution. “Contact tracing will guide us in who should get the vaccines that we do have. In most cases, they will go to those who have had close contact with anyone infected with monkeypox.”