WHO urges caution after dog catches monkeypox
- The health agency called on patients to avoid exposing animals to the virus, after the first case of human-to-dog transmission was reported in Paris
- Pets are not a risk, the WHO says, but there is concern about spreading the disease to rodents and other animals outside the household
The World Health Organization called on Wednesday for people infected with monkeypox to avoid exposing animals to the virus following a first reported case of human-to-dog transmission.
The case – between two men and their Italian greyhound in Paris – was reported last week in the medical journal The Lancet.
“This is the first case reported of human-to-animal transmission … and we believe it is the first instance of a canine being infected,” Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s technical lead for monkeypox, told reporters.
Experts, she said, had been aware of the theoretical risk that such a jump could happen, and that public health agencies had already been advising those suffering from the disease to “isolate from their pets”.
In addition, she said “waste management is critical” to lower the risk of contaminating rodents and other animals outside the household.
It was vital, she said, for people to “have information on how to protect their pets, as well as how to manage their waste so that animals in general are not exposed to the monkeypox virus”.