Monkeypox spreading in Midwest

One person in Indiana is being treated for a pox-like illness that may have come from two sick prairie dogs the individual purchased recently in Illinois.\nAt least 16 cases of a pox-like illness have been reported in Wisconsin, Illinois and now Indiana among people who have come in close contact with infected prairie dogs.\nA virus related to smallpox may be the cause of the illness spreading from pet prairie dogs to people, state and federal health officials said Saturday.\nDr. James Hughes, director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control, said a group of prairie dogs sold from a suburban Chicago pet distributor appears to be infected with the monkeypox virus, a member of the same viral family that causes smallpox.\nRashes, fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes and dry coughing are symptoms of monkeypox.\nSince early May, 17 possible cases have been reported in Wisconsin in people as young as 4 and as old as 48. One has been reported in Illinois and one has been reported in Indiana, health officials from all three states said.\nHughes said monkeypox has typically been found in West African rain forests. If the sickness is indeed caused by monkeypox, it would be the first time the virus has been detected in the Western Hemisphere, he said.\nThe CDC and state health officials are still researching the disease with samples from the infected prairie dogs and humans, but the virus appears susceptible to the anti-viral drug Cidofovir, Hughes said.\nNo one has died from the disease, although four people in Wisconsin were \nhospitalized, said Dr. Jeffery Davis, chief epidemiologist in Wisconsin.\nInvestigators have traced the origin of the outbreak to a pet distributor in Villa Park, Ill. That distributor had a giant Gambian rat, indigenous to African countries, that may have infected batches of prairie dogs, Hughes said.\nThe Illinois case involves an employee of the distributor, said Dr. Eric Whitaker, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.\n"The State is aggressively working to notify individuals who may have had exposure to sick prairie dogs in Illinois, and to provide these people with guidance," Whitaker said.\nAlthough monkeypox is spread primarily through rodents in Africa, scientists have ruled out person-to-person transmission, Hughes said.\nWisconsin agriculture officials have taken several emergency steps since word of the outbreak broke earlier this week.\nThe state Department of Health and Family Services issued an emergency order Friday banning the sale, importation and display of prairie dogs.\nAlso Friday, acting state veterinarian Dr. Robert Ehlenfeldt imposed quarantines on SK Exotics, Hoffer TropicLife Pets, Rainbow Pets and the Dorchester home of Tammy Kautzer, who apparently sells animals to swap meets, Gilson said.\nThe quarantines prohibit movement of any prairie dogs or mammals that come in contact with them.\nThe disease is usually transmitted to people from squirrels and primates through a bite or contact with the animal's blood.\nFacts about monkeypox, a disease that federal health officials believe may be responsible for illnesses among as many as 17 people in the midwest. Officials suspect they caught the illness from exposure to pet prairie dogs.