GEORGETOWN, Guyana– Health officials here said Wednesday despite undertaking contact, they are still unable to discover how Guyana recorded two cases of Monkeypox virus.
Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony said during his daily health update that the patients, a 57-year-old public transportation driver and a woman in her 30s, gave a list of persons who might have been exposed to the virus through contact. The two cases had no recent history of travel.
“We haven’t been able to get all of that information. It is tough to track and trace,” Dr. Anthony told reporters, assuring the population that contact tracing was done to stem further virus spread and that persons found through contact tracing are all being quarantined.
“The patients or the persons who the patients have been in contact with, we have been in touch with names that the patient has given us. It is hard to find some contacts because he doesn’t have any particulars about those people. Still, the immediate family members and persons who he has been in contact with regularly, those persons are in quarantine,” Dr. Anthony said.
He said it is difficult to track every person the infected persons have been in contact with, but “the immediate family is in quarantine, and so far we haven’t seen any signs of anybody developing Monkeypox.”
Dr. Anthony said that the second patient is also being quarantined along with persons who have been in close contact with her.
“We have already contacted close family members, and we have already talked to them, and we have those family members in quarantine as well.
“I don’t think we will have large numbers of people infected, and that is why once we can identify persons with Monkeypox, we have been isolating them to avoid further contact with them, and we will continue to do that.”
The Health Minister is calling the public to take precautions, including calling the Monkeypox hotline “0449” if they have any concerns or questions.
He said that medical personnel would be able to assist and give people advice.
He said it relates to how long a person will need to be hospitalized after becoming infected “that depends on how the patient has been healing but generally from the time of exposure to when a patient has clinical manifestation.
“Let’s say from the time a clinical manifestation they will probably be about 14 days or so because the disease itself in most instances will be a self-limiting disease so generally, 14 days to 21 days, that patient should feel well and will not be infectious and can be discharged,” Dr. Anthony said.
He said that persons could develop complications. Therefore, those patients will have to stay in the hospital longer.
The virus symptoms include a rash that initially looks like pimples or blisters and may be painful or itchy. Other symptoms of Monkeypox can consist of fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion, muscle aches and backache, headache, sore throat, nasal congestion, or cough.
So far, the virus has been detected in Bermuda, Bahamas, Barbados, and Jamaica.
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