Health Alert – U.S. Mission to Australia (May 27, 2022)

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May 27, 2022

Location: Australia, countrywide

Event: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 2 Travel Health Notice for Monkeypox in Multiple Countries.

Actions to Take:

Travelers should AVOID:
- Close contact with sick people, including those with skin lesions or genital lesions.
- Contact with dead or live wild animals such as small mammals including rodents (rats, squirrels) and non-human primates (monkeys, apes).
- Eating or preparing meat from wild game (bushmeat) or using products derived from wild animals from Africa (creams, lotions, powders).
- Contact with contaminated materials used by sick people (such as clothing, bedding, or materials used in healthcare settings) or that came into contact with infected animals.
Risk to the general public is low, but you should seek medical care immediately if you develop new, unexplained skin rash (lesions on any part of the body), with or without fever and chills, and avoid contact with others. If possible, call ahead before going to a healthcare facility. If you are not able to call ahead, tell a staff member as soon as you arrive that you are concerned about monkeypox. Tell your doctor if in the month before developing symptoms:
- You had contact with a person that might have had monkeypox.
- You are a man who has had intimate contact (including sex) with other men.
- You were in an area where monkeypox has been reported (currently, Europe, North America, Australia) or in an area where monkeypox is more commonly found (the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan).
If you are sick and could have monkeypox, delay travel by public transportation until you have been cleared by a healthcare professional or public health officials.