Bid to stop spread of rare monkeypox virus

WHEN a young family of three brought home two $95 prairie dogs from a Mother’s Day event, they never guessed the furry little additions to their five-acre hobby farm could confine them to their home.

But that's just where Tammy Kautzer is biding her time with her husband and three-year-old daughter, quarantined after suffering a bout of suspected monkeypox linked to the prairie dogs, which are burrowing rodents.

"They said we can't leave until the scabs fall off the sores," said Ms Kautzer, 28, of nearby Dorchester in central Wisconsin. "I only have a few more scabs to fall off. My daughter's are gone."

Health officials were working to contain the spread of the monkeypox virus, which is related to smallpox and has apparently never been found before in the Western Hemisphere.

The disease in humans is not usually fatal but causes rashes, fevers, chills and sores.

In all, 33 cases of monkeypox are either suspected or have been confirmed in three Midwest states. In Wisconsin, 16 cases are suspected and three were confirmed; health officials have not identified who the confirmed cases are.

Thirteen cases are suspected in Indiana. And in Illinois, there are four suspected cases and one confirmed case.

Investigators say a shipment of prairie dogs was likely to have been infected with the virus by a giant Gambian rat, which is indigenous to Africa, at a Chicago-area pet distributor, Phil's Pocket Pets.

Federal and state health officials were trying to track down 115 customers both individuals and pet stores that bought animals since April 15 from the business.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention could not say how many people or animals may have come in contact with the virus.

The distributor, Phillip Moberley, said he had voluntarily quarantined his business and has destroyed 70 prairie dogs.

A 24-year-old employee of Mr Moberley's was Illinois' confirmed monkeypox case.