Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Officials Confirm First Probable Case of Monkeypox Virus in Champaign County
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 5, 2022
Contact
Julie Pryde, Administrator
(217) 531-5369 /
Robert Davies, Interim Director of Planning and Research
(217) 531-2932 /
Tanya Giannotti, Public Relations
(217) 531-2925 /
Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Officials Confirm First Probable Case of Monkeypox Virus in Champaign County
Patient is doing well and the probable case poses little risk to general public
CHAMPAIGN, IL – The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (C-UPHD) and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), announced today a single presumptive monkeypox case in an adult male Champaign County resident with recent travel history to Chicago.
Initial testing was completed Friday, July 8, 2022, at an IDPH laboratory, and confirmatory testing for monkeypox is pending at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Based on initial epidemiologic characteristics and the positive orthopoxvirus result at IDPH, health officials consider this a probable monkeypox infection.
C-UPHD and IDPH are working closely with the CDC to identify individuals with whom the patient may have been in contact while they were infectious. This contact tracing approach is appropriate given the nature and transmission of the virus. The person did not require hospitalization and is isolating at home in good condition. To protect patient confidentiality, no further details relating to the patient will be disclosed.
The case remains isolated and at this time there is no indication there is a great risk of extensive local spread of the virus, as monkeypox does not spread as easily as the COVID-19 virus. Personto-person transmission is possible through close physical contact with body fluids, monkeypox sores, items that have been contaminated with fluids or sores (clothing, bedding, etc.), or through respiratory droplets following prolonged face-to-face contact. Symptoms include a rash that can look like pimples or blisters that appears on the face, inside the mouth, and on other parts of the body, like the hands, feet, chest, genitals, or anus.
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