At this time, it is unknown where the patient acquired the virus.
Corpus Christi, Texas — Health officials are trying to identify the technology behind the first possible monkeypox case in Nueces County.
3NEWS learned late Thursday night from Christus Spawn representatives that one patient had been treated for monkeypox and discharged. The Corpus Christi Nueces County Health District said the patient is a man in his 20s and is considered “likely” until the sample is tested by the Centers for Disease Control. The patient had monkeypox.
Dr. Dante Gonzalez, assistant health director for the city and county public health districts, said the CDC was inundated with samples from all over the country, so it could take some time to get results. .
But the big question Friday morning was why the public hadn’t been notified of the incident.
“We received the notification directly from the state, so the state puts it into a system called NEDS, which is the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System,” Gonzalez said. “And that system pulls information and reports from the lab and analyzes those results. So when we looked at the results, they were positive for orthopox. It wasn’t.”
Orthopoxviruses are a group of viruses that include other types of pox such as chickenpox. Gonzalez said the CDC needs to determine what type of smallpox the patient had.
“Every time we get something like this, whether it’s a probable case or a suspected case, we’ll announce something. We definitely will,” Gonzalez said. We definitely are, I think that’s a better word, we definitely are, it’s just a matter of getting it right.”
The City and County Public Health District issued a news release on the incident on Friday after 3NEWS spoke with Gonzalez.
At this time, it is unknown where the patient acquired the virus. Gonzalez said the patient did not report recent travel.
The city and county health department issued a separate news release this evening, stating:
Christus Spohn Hospital followed all appropriate orthopoxvirus testing protocols mandated by the State Department of Health Services in reporting a probable monkeypox case in Nueces County.
Details from 3News on KIIITV.com:
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