The Ministry of Public Health says that two more monkeypox cases have been confirmed in the country, bringing the total to nine persons infected.
The two new cases were 23-year old and 41-year old men, both residents in Greater Santo Domingo. The two were hospitalized and isolated at the Ramón de Lara Air Force Base Teaching Hospital and are recovering satisfactorily.
Dr. Eddy Perez Then of the Ministry of Public Health said during the 24 August 2022 Wednesday press conference of the Ministry of Public health that the health authorities do not expect monkeypox to develop into a pandemic as occurred with Covid-19. He explained that monkeypox is a DNA virus and less capacity to mutate than Covid-19 that is a RNA virus.
“The transmissibility and mortality rate of monkeypox is much lower than that of Covid. However, the hospitalization rate is very similar, but this is because the lesions that appear on the skin produce a lot of pain,” he explained. He said serious cases of monkeypox occur in children under eight years old.
Meanwhile, the president of the Dominican Medical Association (CMD), Senén Caba, said: “I think it has been given more importance than it deserves.”
Regarding the local cases, Caba described the spread of monkeypox as “slow.” “No one has died and in Latin America there have only been two deaths registered in months. In the Dominican Republic there are no deaths,” he said.
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Diario Libre
Listin Diario
25 August 2022