Bolivia reports a suspected case of monkeypox

The health authorities of the region Bolivian Santa Cruz, the largest in the country, reported this Thursday about a suspected case of monkeypox that has been isolated in a hospital and whose samples will be sent to Argentina to confirm or rule out that it is this disease.

The director of the Departmental Health Service (Headquarters) of Santa Cruz, Erwin Viruez, explained that he is a 26-year-old man who presents some of the symptoms of the disease and who had contact with two people from Spain, according to a bulletin of the press of the Santa Cruz Government.

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The young man was isolated at the Elvira Wunderlich Health Center and the care protocol was activated, as well as surveillance of his family and closest contacts in recent days, until the results of the tests are known to confirm or rule out that be a case of monkey pox.

The samples are analyzed at the Bolivian Center for Tropical Diseases (Cenetrop) and will also be sent to a laboratory in Argentina, explained the departmental secretary of Health of Santa Cruz, Fernando Pacheco.

Pacheco explained that the isolated young man has had symptoms such as decay, muscle aches, fever for ten days and three days ago “skin lesions” began to appear, on the palms of his hands, on the soles of his feet and on his face. , characteristic of monkeypox.

According to the official, the patient is “calm and stable”, that he arrived at the health center on Wednesday afternoon and that the national authorities have already been informed about the case.

For its part, the Ministry of Health asked the Headquarters to apply the “epidemiological alert and the recently approved work manual” to unify the form of response to possible infections.

The national director of Epidemiology, Freddy Armijo, asserted that “there is no test to confirm or rule out the suspected case” and that in these cases “a differentiated diagnosis” must be applied to verify if it could be some other disease, such as measles.

In addition, he recalled that monkeypox does not have a vaccine and that it is transmitted by direct contact with blood, body fluids or skin lesions or with objects contaminated by a sick person.

The main symptoms are skin lesions, headache, fever and back pain.

Armijo recommended that the mask be used to avoid contact or the spread of salivary secretions.

In a message on its social networks, the Bolivian Medical Association recommended that people who arrive in Bolivia from countries where there are cases of this disease isolate themselves in case of presenting any of the symptoms.

This week the Ministry of Health activated the epidemiological alert and presented a manual to act in a uniform manner in case of a possible case of monkeypox.

Source: Elcomercio

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