Pets suspected of having monkeypox should be isolated, CDC says

(Bloomberg) — Pets exposed to people with monkeypox should be isolated to make sure they don’t spread the virus to other people or animals, U.S. health officials said after a dog was reported infected with the virus. viruses in Paris.

Because monkeypox can spread through close contact with an infectious person, people who have tested positive should be careful when hugging or petting animals, according to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. of Diseases issued on Friday. Pets can also get the virus from blankets or other household items used by patients, the CDC said, and if a pet appears ill, owners should contact a veterinarian.

“Pets that have had close contact with a person symptomatic with monkeypox should be kept indoors and away from other animals and people for 21 days after the most recent contact,” the Atlanta-based CDC said in a statement on its website. dated August 12. “Infected people should not care for exposed pets.”

The CDC updated its guidance after a dog was reported to have contracted monkeypox from its owners in what is believed to be the first case of human-to-dog transmission. The four-year-old greyhound developed lesions nearly two weeks after his owners, a non-monogamous gay couple, began showing symptoms of monkeypox, according to a report published Aug. 10 in the medical journal The Lancet. The dog’s owners, who tested positive for monkeypox, reported allowing the dog to sleep in his bed.

“Our findings should prompt discussion about the need to isolate pets from people who are positive for monkeypox virus,” the authors of the Lancet study concluded. “We call for further investigation into secondary transmissions through pets.”

Monkeypox is a zoonotic virus that, like the coronaviruses that cause SARS, MERS and COVID-19, can spread from humans to animals. In previous outbreaks of monkeypox, the virus spread primarily to humans through direct contact with infected animals, including eating their meat.

In 2003, monkeypox spread to 47 people in the US who had contact with infected prairie dogs. The rodents became infected after being housed near small mammals imported from Ghana, according to the CDC.

Monkeypox can also revert to animals from humans, something experts have warned could complicate efforts to stop the current outbreak. Other animals susceptible to monkeypox infection include squirrels, groundhogs, chinchillas and dogs, the CDC said. Rabbits may be vulnerable to infection and it is not yet known whether cats are.

The outbreak has spread primarily among men who have sex with men, mostly through close, intimate contact, but animals can also catch the virus if they are exposed to someone who is infectious. But recent reports of animals contracting monkeypox have already led to rampant misinformation on social media, prompting experts at the World Health Organization to respond.

Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s technical lead on monkeypox, called a since-deleted tweet from a New York-based doctor “deliberately misleading” because it seemed to suggest the pet greyhound dog in Paris might have contracted the virus sexually from their owners.

“Orthopoxvirus infections often cause mucosal lesions regardless of the mode of transmission,” Lewis wrote. “As a urologist, you should know this.”

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