Newest Details on Human-to-Animal Monkeypox Transmission
(CNN) -- The first possible case of human-to-dog transmission of monkeypox -- recently reported in two men and their pet in Paris -- had been a theoretical risk up till now, said Dr.
Rosamund Lewis, technical lead on the monkeypox response for the World Health Organization.The men, who live together and are in a non-exclusive relationship, were diagnosed with monkeypox at a hospital in Paris in early June.
Twelve days after their symptoms started, their 4-year-old Italian greyhound also started showing symptoms, according to a report published last week in the journal The Lancet.The dog developed lesions and tested positive for the same type of monkeypox as one of the owners.According to the report, the men said that they let their dog sleep in bed with them and that they had been careful to keep their pet away from other animals or humans from the start of their own symptoms -- before the dog's symptoms started."To the best of our knowledge, the kinetics of symptom onset in both patients and, subsequently, in their dog, suggest human-to-dog transmission of monkeypox virus," the authors of the report wrote. "Given the dog's skin and mucosal lesions as well as the positive monkeypox virus PCR results from anal and oral swabs, we hypothesise a real canine disease, not a simple carriage of the virus by close contact with humans or airborne transmission (or both)."The authors suggested that the study should prompt discussion on whether pets need to be isolated from their owners if they have monkeypox, and they called for further research.New, but not surprising, information, WHO saysLewis said that previously, only animal-to-human transmission of the virus was reported, referencing a monkeypox outbreak in the US in which.
