Don’t toss your masks yet!
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning about a new illness and the World Health Organization is considering whether to declare an international emergency over monkeypox.
If that happens, there could be new travel restrictions that go into effect, according to Cornell University.
Monkeypox begins with fever, headache, muscle aches, backpacks, swollen lymph nodes, and exhaustion. The illness typically lasts 2-4 weeks.
The virus has been reported in Europe, North America, and Australia. None of the people diagnosed with the virus from these countries recently traveled to central or west African countries where monkeypox usually occurs, according to the CDC.
Requirements for Summer Travel by Air and Sea
The good news is that the CDC believes the virus remains a low risk to the general public, but warned there are new studies about how the monkeypox virus spreads from person-to-person. They believe it spreads through the airborne transmission of respiratory droplets or direct contact with lesions from an infected person.
Health experts warn that precautions should be taken whenever possible due to the risk of airborne transmission.
Those precautions include:
-
- Proper hand hygiene
- Containment and disposal of supplies used to treat infected people
- Isolating people who are suspected of having monkeypox in a negative air pressure room
While the response to monkeypox sounds a lot like COVID-19, experts warn it doesn’t mean it will turn into a world-wide pandemic. They point to other illnesses like bird flu and SARS that sickened and killed people across the would, but weren’t declared pandemics.