The Brazilian Ministry of Health announced that it is checking four other "suspected" cases of monkeypox, bringing the number of patients under medical observation to six, calling on citizens to wear the mask.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that more than 700 cases of monkeypox have been recorded worldwide, including 21 in the United States.
In Egypt, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Acting Minister of Health and Population, said that there are no cases of monkeypox in Egypt, adding that no suspected cases have been reported so far.
Dr. Abdel Ghaffar noted, in a statement, that monkeypox was discovered in 1958, while the virus that causes “monkeypox” is very close to the virus that causes smallpox, but it is less lethal and less transmissible.
He explained that monkeypox is a zoonotic viral disease that mainly appears in forest areas in central and western Africa. The symptoms of this disease are fever, rash, and swollen lymph nodes, and may lead to medical complications.
Monkeypox is a virus that spreads from wild animals such as rats and primates to humans on rare occasions. It is related to smallpox and belongs to the same virus family, according to WHO.
The majority of human infections have occurred in Central and West Africa, with outbreaks being very rare.
Scientists discovered the sickness in 1958 after two outbreaks of a “pox-like” disease in laboratory monkeys — hence the term monkeypox. In 1970, a little boy in a rural section of Congo became the first known human infection.
“We are fully prepared to face any cases that may appear, we are working to bring in vaccines or anti-disease drugs”, Abdel Ghaffar revealed.
Thousands of monkeypox infections are estimated to occur each year in approximately a dozen of African nations, according to the World Health Organization. The majority of cases are reported in Congo, which has around 6,000 cases per year, and Nigeria, which has about 3,000 cases per year.
Follow the latest news on Google News
