Public health officials in the Midwest are trying to control a virus outbreak… believed to be linked to infected prairie dogs sold as pets. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sean Crawford reports:
Transcript
Public health officials in the Midwest are trying to control a virus outbreak…
believed to be linked to infected prairie dogs sold as pets. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Sean Crawford reports:
There are several confirmed cases of monkeypox now and more are expected.
Authorities are working to track down more than 100 customers of a
suburban Chicago exotic pet dealer.
Dr. Craig Conover with the Illinois Public Health Agency says those who purchased
prairie dogs during the past two months might be at risk.
“We’re making every effort to contact them personally. Many of the individuals are out
of state so the names of such individuals have been transmitted to other state health
departments.”
Conover says some prairie dogs later were traded at swap meets… making it more
difficult to locate them. This is the first time monkeypox has shown up in the
Western hemisphere. While similar to smallpox, it’s usually not as serious, but can
result in fever, chills, and rashes.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Sean Crawford.