- New York City health officials confirmed the state's first presumed case of monkeypox on Friday.
- Officials are carrying out contact tracing as the patient isolates at Bellvue Hospital.
- It is the second presumptive case confirmed in the US after a Massachusetts man tested positive.
The New York City Department of Health on Friday confirmed the state's first presumptive monkeypox case in a growing outbreak that now spans nine countries.
A second suspected case in New York was ruled out, according to a statement. Officials had previously announced a patient was awaiting test results in isolation at Bellevue Hospital.
The positive patient tested positive for Orthopoxvirus, the family to which the monkeypox virus belongs, but official confirmation has yet to be confirmed by the CDC, officials said.
The patient is isolating and treating the case as a presumptive positive in the meantime, and the New York City Health Department said it's carrying out contact tracing.
The first case of monkeypox in the US this year was confirmed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health earlier this week. An adult man who had recently traveled to Canada tested positive but "poses no risk to the public," according to a press release.
The rare disease is typically found in Central and West Africa or on other continents in cases usually related to foreign travel. But the most recent spate of monkeypox cases detected in the US, Australia, and several European countries — which includes more than 140 confirmed and suspected cases so far this month — are not following the usual pattern, global health officials have said.
Recent infections suggest community transmission is playing a significant role, despite the disease rarely being spread between humans.
The New York City Department of Health on Friday said the virus can spread through close contact with an infected person or animal via respiratory droplets, body fluids, and sharing clothes. They added that masks can protect against the disease.