Monkeypox Arrives In Camden County; 5 Things To Know About It

SOUTH JERSEY — The case of monkeypox in Camden County that was announced Tuesday is the eighth case of the disease in New Jersey, as of 2 p.m. on Wednesday, the state Department of Health said.

The latest case brings the total number of monkeypox cases in the United States to 560 as of 2 p.m. on Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) stated. The state with the most cases of monkeypox, again as of 2 p.m. on Tuesday, is California, the CDC also stated.

Below, find five more things to know about monkeypox.

• The first case of monkeypox in the Garden State was announced by the state Department of Health on June 18. The infected person was a Jersey City resident, the state said.

• Monkeypox is most commonly spread through skin-to-skin contact with someone who is infected and through respiratory infections, Martin Topiel, MD, the chief of infectious diseases at Virtua Health in South Jersey, told Patch. Of those two transmission methods, skin-to-skin contact is a much more common way of contracting monkeypox, Topiel told Patch.

• The symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle ache, chills and a pimple or blister-like rash, according to Camden County. Since many of these symptoms can sometimes be indicative of the flu, Topiel advised anyone "with these symptoms who has had exposure to monkeypox to talk to their physician."

• There are two vaccines for monkeypox available and they are only available on a limited basis, Topiel said. That said, the federal government recently ordered an additional 2.5 million doses of monkeypox vaccine, which should arrive in the United States later this year and throughout 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Friday.

• Everyone, even those who do not have monkeypox, should keep track of the disease's spread in the United States, according to Topiel. "There's no reason to believe these emerging infections are going to disappear," he said in the interview. "Rather, they are part of who we are in this century. So, it's important to ... see how these infections present so we can protect families, friends and loved ones," he continued.

Some online sources of information for monkeypox include the CDC's website and the HHS' website. Some government entities' websites also have pages devoted to monkeypox, such as Camden County and the New Jersey Department of Health.

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