KINGSTON, Jamaica– Health and Wellness Dr. Christopher Tufton, Wednesday confirmed that Jamaica had recorded its first case of the Monkeypox virus.
He told a news conference that the patient is a male who recently traveled from the United Kingdom and had visited a public health facility on Tuesday, having arrived on the island five days earlier.
Tufton told reporters that the unidentified patient has been isolated while having confirmatory tests done and his close contacts quarantined following contact tracing, which will continue if necessary.
The Health and Wellness Minister said that the confirmation of the case had triggered Jamaica’s emergency protocols in line with international health regulation guidelines.
“Among other things, our emergency operation center has been activated. A review of all isolated facilities is to be done to look at the capacity to manage both Monkeypox and COVID-19,” he said.
Symptoms of Monkeypox include skin rash, fever, headache, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, and exhaustion and can last up to two to four weeks.
A surge in monkeypox cases has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes the Monkeypox virus as an orthopoxviral that causes a disease with symptoms similar but less severe to smallpox. It said while smallpox was eradicated in 1980, Monkeypox continues to occur in Central and West African countries.
The WHO said that most people recover fully without treatment, but people can get seriously ill in some cases.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 5,000 Monkeypox cases have been reported from 53 countries worldwide that don’t usually convey the disease.
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