DENVER — The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has detected a second presumptive positive case of monkeypox, health officials announced Friday.
The person is a young adult male and close contact of the state's first presumptive positive case of monkeypox, which officials announced Thursday.
The young man sought care in the Denver area and is improving and isolating at home, according to CDPHE. He is cooperating with state and local public health epidemiologists.
Both cases are presumptive and awaiting confirmation from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDPHE said Coloradans can help prevent the spread of monkeypox by avoiding close physical contact with individuals who have acquired monkeypox, wearing a high-quality mask if they will be spending time in close contact with someone experiencing symptoms of monkeypox, and contacting a health care provider as soon as possible if they experience symptoms.
“We want to reassure Coloradans that the risk to the public is low, but we also want them to know of the symptoms so that we can catch other cases as soon as possible,” said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the CDPHE's state epidemiologist.
While monkeypox is rare in the United States, cases have popped up in people who have a recent history of international travel or people who had contact with animals from areas where the disease is more common, the CDPHE said.
In 2021, for example, there were two monkeypox cases in the United States associated with international travel, and there was a monkeypox outbreak in six states involving 47 cases associated with contact with infected animals that had contact with small mammals from Ghana in 2003.
Neither of those outbreaks included cases in Colorado.
The risk to the public is low, CDPHE said. Here's what you need to know about monkeypox.