Dear Student,
We are looking forward to the start of the new academic year. I am writing to reassure you that the Health Service and the university have been closely monitoring the global monkeypox outbreak. We are prepared to take measures to mitigate the spread of monkeypox in our community should it occur.
What you need to know
Monkeypox can spread to anyone through close, personal, skin-to-skin contact including direct contact or intimate contact with monkeypox rash, scabs, or body fluids from a person with monkeypox:
- Touching objects, fabrics (clothing, bedding, or towels), and surfaces that have been used by someone with monkeypox and that have not been disinfected.
- Contact with respiratory secretions of an infected person.
- Monkeypox may be spread by prolonged face to face contact that may occur with hugging, massage, and kissing an infected person.
- Transmission can occur during intimate contact such as during oral, anal, and vaginal sex or touching the genitals or anus of a person with monkeypox. Touching fetish gear or sex toys can also lead to transmission.
- A pregnant person can spread the virus to their fetus through the placenta.
A person is infectious to others from the time symptoms start until the rash has fully healed and a fresh layer of skin has formed. The illness typically lasts 2–4 weeks.
If you have an exposure or develop symptoms (fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion, and a rash resembling pimples or blisters anywhere on the body), you should contact Tufts Health Service at 617-627-3350 for evaluation. Testing can be arranged when indicated.
Anyone can get monkeypox
Anyone can be infected with monkeypox regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. While gay, bisexual, and queer men and transgender and non-binary people who have sex with men have been disproportionately impacted thus far, inaccurate media messaging that this is somehow a “gay illness” is wrong; it creates stigma, perpetuates misconceptions, harms people who are vulnerable, and prevents people who are at risk from taking precautions.
Medical information must be treated with great care and confidentiality. Tufts Student Health Service, along with Tufts Occupational Health Services, community medical providers, and local boards of health, will carry out their responsibilities to ensure that appropriate contact tracing and environmental disinfection take place as needed.
Students are encouraged to notify Tufts Health Service to report exposures, symptoms, and diagnoses, but do not need to disclose their health status to instructors, work study supervisors, etc., nor to other students. Please never share medical information about any individual with others.
With best wishes,
Marie Caggiano, MD, MPH
Medical Director, Health Service
