SAN ANTONIO – Monkeypox cases are on the rise across the U.S., including Texas, but the number of cases in Bexar County remains relatively low.
Metro Health has a dashboard that shows current cases of the virus in San Antonio and Bexar County.
The map below shows the number of monkeypox cases per 100,000 people, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Texas is among the top ten states with the highest cases per 100,000 people.
The first confirmed case of the rare viral disease in Texas was reported in early June.
One person has since died of the disease in Texas. The person died in the Houston area and was described by the Texas Department of State Health Services as being “severely immunocompromised.”
Monkeypox is part of the same family of viruses that cause smallpox, according to the CDC.
Symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches and backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion and a rash that resembles pimples or blisters that appear on your face, inside of your mouth and other parts of your body, like the hands, feet, chest, genitals or anus, the CDC website states.
“This isn’t like COVID - the virus is not highly transmissible through casual contact,” said epidemiologist Rebecca Fischer, assistant professor at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. “I do not expect we’re going to see classroom spread, workplace spread – that would be a very rare circumstance.”