Free Republic

The first reported fatality of the Alaskapox virus was recently revealed by Alaska public health officials after an elderly man in Alaska succumbed to it in January. According to a bulletin released by the state’s public health officials, the elderly man lived in the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska before being hospitalized in November and dying from the virus toward the end of January. While health officials could not make a final determination regarding how the elderly man contracted the Alaskapox virus, health officials suggested that he could have contracted the virus from a stray cat that he was taking care...

Alaska health officials confirmed the state’s first fatal case of Alaskapox — a recently discovered viral disease. An elderly immunocompromised man from the Kenai peninsula, south of Anchorage, died while undergoing treatment in late January, the Anchorage Daily News reported. He is one of only seven reported Alaskapox infections, the Alaska Department of Public Health said in an announcement on Friday. “People should not necessarily be concerned but more aware,” said Julia Rogers, a state epidemiologist. “So we’re hoping to make clinicians more aware of what Alaskapox virus is, so that they can identify signs and symptoms.” The double-stranded-DNA virus,...