Since the Venezuelan Ministry of Health reported in June that they detected the first suspected case of monkeypox in a patient from Spain, it is not known if new cases have been registered in the country.
At that time, the authorities announced that they were “screening the chain of infections to establish an epidemiological fence.”
Given the few education and information campaigns regarding the disease, the intensive care pediatrician and vice president of the National Academy of Medicine, Huniades Urbina, reiterated the need for the Venezuelan government to disclose information.
In addition, he insisted on the importance of knowing the status of the control method “that they are or should implement in the event that cases increase, because we already know from official sources that there has been only one case.”
Young men at higher risk
Manuel Figuera Esparza, president of the Venezuelan Society of Infectious Diseases, reiterated for his part that infections occur when there is close skin-to-skin contact and adds that one of the greatest risk factors is multiple sexual partners.
“And young men because adults who had smallpox vaccination before the 1980s, 1970s, have some kind of protection that they can maintain even though more than 40, 50 years have passed,” he said.
After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, the National Academy of Medicine of Venezuela recommended that the government of President Nicolás Maduro declare a health alarm, ensure transparency in the Information management.
VOA
