Monkeypox: confirm the first case in Latin America

The Ministry of Health of Argentina confirmed this Friday the first case of monkeypox in the country and indicated that he is studying a suspicious case in a “resident in Spain who is visiting”, with no connection to the first patient.

This thus becomes the first case of monkeypox recorded in Latin America.

(Read: Authorities rule out case of young man with symptoms of smallpox in Cauca)

“The result of the PCR amplification reaction of the case in question is positive, in turn, the sequencing showed a high percentage of homology with sequences from the West African clade,” the health portfolio reported in a statement.

The confirmed case, which was already reported as a suspect last Sunday, corresponds to a man who resides in the province of Buenos Aires, who was recently in Spain and presented symptoms compatible with the disease.

According to the ministry, the confirmation was made through a second study using the Sanger method, which showed a high percentage of homology with “Monkeypox” sequences from the West African clade.

“Similar to all that are being found in new cases of monkeypox around the world,” they added in the note.

According to the official note, the patient is in good health and with symptomatic treatment and his close contacts with clinical and epidemiological control without presenting symptoms at the moment.

Regarding the case suspected of being monkeypox -a disease of which at least 200 cases have been recorded so far in non-endemic countries-, the patient has no link to the first case and presents ulcerative lesions without other associated symptoms.

The Health portfolio indicated that the person, a resident of Spain, arrived in Argentina on May 25 and his symptoms began the next day.

“The patient is in good general condition, isolated, and receiving symptomatic treatment. His close contacts are under strict clinical and epidemiological follow-up, all of them being asymptomatic to date, ”they explained in the statement.

‘The tip of the iceberg’

This Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the 200 cases of monkeypox registered in recent weeks outside the countries where it usually circulates could be the “tip of the iceberg”, although he asked not to “panic”.

“We don’t know if we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg,” said Sylvie Briand, WHO’s head of epidemic and pandemic prevention and preparedness, during a briefing.

Experts are now trying to determine the causes of this “unusual situation,” he added.

Preliminary investigations do not seem to indicate that the virus has changed or mutated and Briand believes that it is possible to stop the spread. “If we put the right measures in place, we can probably contain this easily.”

Monkeypox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals. Person-to-person transmission is possible but rare.

The United Kingdom was the first country to raise the alarm on May 7 and since then, nearly 200 cases have been reported to the UN health agency from countries where the virus is not endemic.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has put the number of cases at 219. Monkeypox is endemic in eleven countries in East and Central Africa.

But in recent weeks, there have been cases in more than 20 other countries, including the United States, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and the European Union.

The Spanish Ministry of Health reported a total of 98 cases so far on Friday, slightly more than the UK, where there are 90 confirmed infections.

In Portugal, the number of cases is 74, health authorities reported on Friday. All those infected are men and most are under 40 years old, they said.

INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE and AFP

More world news

– WHO does not recommend mass vaccinations against monkeypox
– Ukraine: civilian deaths from war exceed 4,000
– Ukraine’s richest man plans to sue Russia for damages in Mariupol