The Ministry of Public Health (MSP) notified on Tuesday, 5 July 2022 that the first suspected case of monkeypox has been identified in the country. The case is reported in a Dominican national who had recently entered from the United States.
“After presenting symptoms similar to those of this disease, the suspicion alarm was activated, and he was immediately subject to the corresponding evaluations and laboratory tests,” reads a Ministry of Public Health press release. The person is in isolation at the Air Force Hospital Doctor Ramón de Lara, under the MSP’s control, awaiting the tests’ results.
The Ministry says that none of the people who have been in close contact with the man have reported symptoms.
“The patient is stable, under medical surveillance, and with the follow-up of his attending physician, to ensure his health and care,” said Public Health.
Monkeypox is a rare emerging zoonotic infection, potentially fatal, which can spread to humans and has its origin in West and Central Africa, where it is now endemic. The disease was discovered in 1958, when two smallpox-like outbreaks occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research purposes. For this reason it received the name “monkeypox”.
The first human case of monkeypox was reported in August 1970 in Bokenda, a remote village in the equatorial province of the Democratic Republic of Congo when a 9-month-old boy was admitted to Basankusu Hospital with suspected smallpox. A sample, sent to the World Health Organization (WHO) Smallpox Reference Center in Moscow, revealed that the symptoms were caused by monkeypox virus. The patient’s family said that they sometimes ate monkeys. The investigation revealed that the boy was the only one in the family who had not been vaccinated against human smallpox.
As of 1 July 2022, a total of 96 confirmed monkeypox cases have been identified with 87 in New York City, 5 in Westchester County, 1 in Sullivan County, 1 in Chemung County, 1 in Rockland County and 1 in Suffolk County. New York is the second-largest city in numbers of Dominican population.
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Hoy
El Caribe
6 July 2022