OMAHA- Nebraska has identified its first case of monkeypox, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and Douglas County Health Department reported.

The agencies said the state public health laboratory identified a positive orthopoxvirus test taken by a state resident, a male in his 30s with recent international travel.

DHHS is working with the county and the CDC to investigate potential exposures and is to notify those individuals if any exposures are identified.

Symptoms include a rash that can look like pimples or blisters that appear on the genitals, anus, face, inside of the mouth and on other parts of the body like hands, feet or chest. The rash goes through different stages before healing, the release said. Other symptoms include fever, headache, backache, muscle aches, chills and, exhaustion.

Nebraska Medicine calls monkeypox a very rare disease that’s normally linked to travel in West and Central Africa. It’s called monkeypox because it was first discovered in 1958 when colonies of monkeys kept for research developed a pox- like disease.

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