The Florida Department of Heath reported the first case of monkeypox in Orange County Florida Thursday afternoon.
Jared Fox the Orlando Health Chief of Infectious diseases said he does not believe that the disease is as big of a threat as the public are led to believe.
“The good thing is it’s not an extremely infectious organism, so a lot of people are going to be scared but I don’t want them to be,” Fox said.
According to the CDC, the virus originates in wild animals like primates and rodents while occasionally infecting people.
The department said, “Currently, there is no proven, safe treatment for monkeypox virus infection. For controlling a potential outbreak, the smallpox vaccine is given.”
Fox said that while the disease’s threat to the general population is low, his department is confident is detecting infections.
“I expect we’ll see some more cases,” said Fox. “The good thing is that the Department of Health is good at contact tracing.”
There are currently over 20 presumed cases in Florida.
