U.S. CDC Ups Monkeypox Alert to Level 2, Practice Enhanced Precautions

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday increased its warning for travel over monkeypox.

The CDC, which first issued a warning for monkeypox last month, increased its warning from Level 1, Practice Usual Precautions to Level 2, Practice Enhanced Precautions because of the continued outbreak. The next level of warning alerts travelers to avoid nonessential travel.

While the risk to the general public is still low, the CDC wants travelers, particularly those going abroad, to be aware of the symptoms and how monkeypox can spread.

The new warning alerts travelers to “avoid close contact with sick people, including those with skin lesions or genital lesions” and to “avoid contact with dead or live wild animals such as small mammals including rodents (rats, squirrels) and non-human primates (monkeys, apes).” It also alerts travelers to “avoid eating or preparing wild game.”

The CDC wants travelers to be aware that symptoms include fever (higher than 100.4°F), headache, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes, followed by a rash, and then that progress through several stages before falling off. Patients, according to the CDC, are usually ill for 2–4 weeks. Most cases, according to the CDC, are mild.

As of Monday, the U.S. has reported more than 25 cases of monkeypox in 12 different states, including infections from two different strains of the disease. Other countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K., have also reported monkeypox infections.

Globally, more than 1,000 cases have been confirmed in 29 countries.