Public health officials in Alaska have revealed the first known human death from Alaska smallpox, a virus typically found in small mammals.
To date, no person-to-person transmission of Alaska smallpox has been detected and there have been no known cases outside the state that gives its name to the virus. California health officials confirmed there have been no reports of the virus in the state.
The first person to die from the virus was an elderly man from Alaska's Kenai Peninsula who was receiving cancer treatment, state health officials said in a bulletin issued late last week.
The man's symptoms began in mid-September with a painful red lesion near his shoulder that was not responding to antibiotic treatment. When he was hospitalized in November, he complained of burning pain that made it difficult to move his arm. Doctors noticed four additional sores on other parts of his body and sent samples of the lesions to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for analysis.
The man was taking medications to treat his cancer and those medications affected his immune system. Despite some positive response to antiviral treatment, his health deteriorated rapidly in hospital and he died in January.
The man was only the seventh known person to be infected with the virus since it was first detected in humans in 2015, according to the Alaska Department of Public Health. He was also the first person to become sick enough to require hospitalization.
“The patient's immunocompromised status likely contributed to the severity of the illness,” state health officials said. saying in a sentence.
All of the above patients complained of swollen lymph nodes and muscle pain that disappeared within a few weeks. The virus also causes one or more red, uncomfortable skin lesions, which several previous patients mistook for spider or insect bites.
Testing in 2020 and 2021 found the virus in several species of small mammals in the Fairbanks area of Alaska, particularly shrews and red-backed voles. The man who died in January was the first person outside the Fairbanks area to be diagnosed with the virus, a sign that the virus has spread to mammals outside that region, health officials said.
The man lived alone in a forested region and had no known travel or contact with potentially infected people.
She cared for a stray cat prone to hunting small mammals and scratching its human caretaker, state officials said. The cat had scratched the man on the shoulder a month before his symptoms began, near the location where his first injury was found. However, officials said they could not be sure how the man acquired the virus.
“Wild animals can carry germs that can be transmitted to people through direct or indirect contact and make them sick,” a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health said in an email. “Even if an animal appears healthy, it can still transmit germs that can cause illness. “Do not touch or approach wild animals or any animals you do not know.”
Alaskan smallpox is an orthopoxvirus, the genus of viruses that includes smallpox and Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox.
Although there have been no reported cases of person-to-person transmission of Alaska smallpox, Alaska health officials noted that other orthopoxviruses can spread through close contact with the lesions of an infected person. This is how health officials believe Mpox spread during the brief 2022 outbreak in which a virus previously found in West and Central Africa suddenly took off in Europe and the US.
Anyone with suspicious lesions who think they might have the virus should cover the sore with a bandage until they can see a doctor and avoid sharing clothing or bedding with anyone else, Alaska Division of Public Health. saying.
