Peruvian Health Minister Jorge Lopez announced the discovery of the country’s first case of monkeypox.
“The first confirmed case of monkeypox was identified in the capital, and it is a patient who underwent laboratory tests recently,” Lopez said in an interview with Peruvian TV.
The minister explained that the patient is a foreign national living in Peru, “it is clear that he was in contact with people who came from abroad,” while the authorities isolated the patient and his relatives and are working to identify all social contacts of this family.
Lopez urged his countrymen to be aware of symptoms of the disease and to seek medical attention immediately if they appear, and the initial symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, swollen lymph nodes, chills and fatigue. It may develop into a rash, often starting on the face and then spreading to other parts of the body. The rash changes and goes through different stages before eventually forming a crust that later falls off.
Monkeypox is a rare viral infection that is also transmitted between humans. The infection is usually mild and most people recover within a few weeks, but complications can occur for some.
The first human case of monkeypox was identified in 1970. Subsequently, it was discovered repeatedly, but as a rule, the infected were in Africa. The transmission of the virus, according to medical observations, usually occurs from animal to human.
More than 3.2 thousand cases of this disease were recently discovered in 48 countries around the world, while the ways of infection spread are not completely clear to specialists.
The World Health Organization’s emergency committee recently acknowledged the “extraordinary nature” of the monkeypox outbreak and called for the spread of the infection to be brought under control.