Pet cats and dogs may also spread the virus. It also notes that some orthopoxviruses can be passed on via contact with skin lesions. To date, no human-to-human transmission has been documented, Alaska's Department of Health says. Most patients who had documented cases of Alaskapox suffered mild illnesses that cleared up on their own after a few weeks. Rogers, the epidemiologist, said she expects Alaskapox infections to remain rare. Officials believe there have been more cases of Alaskapox in humans that weren't caught. The cat tested negative for orthopoxvirus. The man also told health officials that he gardened in his backyard and took care of a stray cat, which hunted small animals nearby and would frequently scratch him. The patient who was hospitalized and later died was an "elderly man" who lived alone and was immunocompromised from cancer treatment, which "likely contributed" to the severity of his illness, officials say. Six of the infections were detected in the Fairbanks area, while the man who died last month was from a forested area of the Kenai Peninsula. There have been seven known infections in Alaska since 2015, including last month's fatality. What do we know about the reported Alaskapox cases? Patients typically have one or more skin lesions and can also develop swollen lymph nodes and joint or muscle pain. Climate Zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 and monkeypox will become more common, experts sayĪlaska's Division of Public Health says the virus has been found primarily in small animals in the Fairbanks area, such as shrews and red-backed voles.
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