Nurse may have caught monkeypox from human

? A Wisconsin nurse may have contracted monkeypox from a patient in what would be the first known case of the disease spreading from one person to another in the United States, officials said Thursday.

Wisconsin state epidemiologist Jeff Davis said health officials were testing tissue specimens to confirm whether the unidentified health care worker was infected with the exotic African virus.

Until now, health officials investigating the weeklong outbreak in the United States have said that the virus was being spread by pet prairie dogs. But the disease also can be transmitted from one person to another, something that has happened in Africa.

“In this case there was no animal exposure,” Davis said of the health care worker. “The only contact was with a human.”

Davis would not release other details, but Patrice M. Skonieczny, infection control coordinator at St. Francis Hospital in Milwaukee, said the sick worker was a nurse at the hospital.

Skonieczny said the nurse cared for a Milwaukee pet distributor who was being treated for a possible case of monkeypox. The nurse wore a mask, gloves and a gown when treating the patient, Skonieczny said.

Last weekend, several days after caring for the patient, the nurse developed flulike symptoms and a rash, but they “kind of faded away in a couple of days,” Skonieczny said. The nurse has stayed home since developing the symptoms, she added.