UPDATE (2 p.m.):
The City of Corpus Christi sent out a release on Friday afternoon regarding the probable monkeypox case.
"On August 25, Christus Spohn Hospital erroneously reported a confirmed case of monkeypox in Nueces County for a male in his late 20s," the release states. "The Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District received notification from the Department of State Health Services that the case is considered probable."
"All test specimens must be sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for testing," the release states. "The CDC continues to monitor cases worldwide to determine the cause of the outbreak, but the risk to the U.S. population is currently considered low."
Christus Spohn officials said they are advised by the CDC to treat orthopox positives as confirmed cases, because of the public health emergency.
According to the release, a probable case means a person tested positive for orthopoxvirus, which includes multiple pox viruses, including monkeypox.
Doctor Dante Gonzalez, the assistant director of the Corpus Christi Nueces County Public Health District said the county doesn’t have monkey pox tests only Orthopox ones.
"Right now the CDC is taking about 10 percent of all the cases,” Gonzalez said. “There’s a lot of cases right now so ten percent meaning this is one in ten that could be sent over there and we’re still working through that.”
Currently, the health district has a limited supply of the vaccines which are treated as a preventative.
The city-county health district is working on a case investigation. He said they know the man hadn't been out of the country recently.
"So as long as you’re not making that contact with that lesion or that skin, the probability of infection is going to be low," Gonzalez said. "If you’re around an individual that has a confirmed case, then you only have a certain amount of days that we can give you the vaccine. Once you start showing the signs and symptoms, he best thing to do at that time is to isolate.”
On August 12, the health district released a statement saying high risk people included but weren’t limited to men 18 and older who have engaged in sex with men and who have had multiple anonymous partners in the past 21 days.
"It’s not specific to that community," Gonzalez said. "Anybody can get it, it’s just right now the cases are shown to be higher in that specific community.”
Gonzalez said they had not given anyone the JYNNEOS, monkeypox vaccine yet.
To find more information into symptoms, and signs of monkeypox, you can find more information on the CDC website.
ORIGINAL STORY:
KRIS 6 News has spoken with Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District assistant director of public health Dr. Dante Gonzalez, who has confirmed a probable case of monkeypox in the area.
He said the patient is a male in his 20s.
The man had lesions on his skin and was at CHRISTUS Spohn Shoreline Hospital, but has been released.
Gonzalez said he has been asked to isolate himself for 21 days.
KRIS 6 News' Taylor Alanis will have more details on KRIS 6 News at 6 p.m. Friday.
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