Tag: rare

An Alaska resident has died from complications of a relatively new and rare virus known as Alaskapox, according to a bulletin posted by Alaska state public health officials.  

The Alaskapox virus was first identified in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2015, according to the Alaska Department of Health. Since then, there have been only seven cases reported in the state, according to the state health department.

This is the first case of an Alaskapox infection resulting in hospitalization and death ever reported. State public health officials noted the patient was an elderly man who was immunocompromised, putting him at higher risk for severe illness.

“Alaskapox remains rare,” Dr. Joe McLaughlin, state epidemiologist and chief of the Alaska Division of Public Health Section of Epidemiology, told ABC News. “For the vast majority of people who may come in contact with this virus, the clinical course will likely be mild.”

The virus typically occurs in small animals, commonly identified in voles and shrews, according to the Alaska State Department of Health. There have been no reports of human-to-human spread, according to the state health agency.

“There’s no evidence so far [of] person-to-person transmission for the cases that have been identified,” Julia Rogers, Ph.D., epidemic intelligence service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention embedded with the Alaska Department of Health, told ABC News.

“Given the rarity of Alaskapox and its generally mild course in healthy individuals, the risk to the general public remains low,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News medical contributor.

It remains unclear how the deceased resident was infected with the virus. They lived alone in a forested area and reported caring for a stray cat, which later tested negative for the virus, according to the state’s bulletin, issued