Dallas Daddyland Festival visitor gets monkeypox, officials say

DALLAS — Dallas County is reporting the primary case of monkeypox that has been transmitted domestically. 

The Dallas County Health and Human Services mentioned it has confirmed a case of monkeypox in an out-of-state visitor who was on the town for the Daddyland Festival over the Fourth of July weekend. 

According to officials, the individual reported attendance on the pageant and different non-public events. The visitor went to a Dallas hospital with a rash and was recognized with the virus by way of lab testing. 

“Given the size of the Daddyland Festival, others who attended the events could have been exposed to monkeypox and, possibly, infected,” the division mentioned in a press launch. 

The pageant included occasions equivalent to dance events, pool events and nightclub occasions, which pose a excessive threat of transmission, the division mentioned. 

Dallas County had beforehand reported 4 monkeypox circumstances amongst residents. All 4 circumstances had been reported by self-identified males who had intercourse with different males. The division mentioned monkeypox can impression anybody, no matter sexual orientation, and might unfold by way of contact with bodily fluids, monkeypox sores and shared objects which are contaminated with fluids or sores of an individual with monkeypox. 

Monkeypox signs embody fever, swollen lymph nodes and normal physique aches earlier than creating a rash.