On Friday, June 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that genetic testing identified two strains of monkeypox in the US, according to the Associated Press. Most US cases involved the strain linked to the recent outbreak first identified in European countries, according to Medscape, but the presence of a second variant suggests the virus may have been spreading unnoticed for some time.
“I think it’s certainly possible that there could have been monkeypox cases in the United States that went under the radar previously, but not to any great degree,” Jennifer McQuiston of the CDC told reporters, according to the AP.
Monkeypox symptoms, which can include fevers, headaches, rashes, and lesions, may have been misdiagnosed as other illnesses, making it difficult to track when cases first emerged in the US, the AP reports. However, McQuiston says that data from many more patients will be required to estimate ...
