Argentina reported its case of the monkeypox virus on Friday, May 27, in a man who recently travelled to Spain. It also reported a suspected case of the rare virus in another person.
A man from the province of Buenos Aires has monkeypox, Argentina’s health ministry said in a statement.
An official in the ministry earlier confirmed the positive case but said health authorities were waiting to finish sequencing the virus before making the official announcement.
It is the first time the presence of the virus has been confirmed in Latin America during this latest outbreak in countries around the world that are not usually known to have outbreaks.
SPAIN EMERGES AS EPICENTRE
Spain emerged as the epicentre of this recent outbreak, and health authorities confirmed on Friday that there were 98 confirmed cases in the country. The United Kingdom has reported 106 confirmed cases, while Portugal said on Friday the number of people with monkeypox had increased to 74.
Cases have also been reported in the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, France and Italy, among others.
The monkeypox virus originates in wild animals like rodents and primates, and occasionally jumps onto people. It belongs to the same virus family as smallpox.
Till now, most human cases have been only in central and west Africa, and outbreaks have been relatively limited.
‘200 CASES IN 20 COUNTRIES’
The World Health Organisation (WHO), on Friday, said that cases of monkeypox have been found in 20 countries, with about 200 confirmed cases. As many as 100 suspected cases have been reported from nations where it is typically not found.
During a public briefing on Friday, the UN health agency said there are still many unanswered questions about what triggered the unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox outside of Africa, but there is no evidence that any genetic changes in the virus are responsible.
“The first sequencing of the virus shows that the strain is not different from the strains we can find in endemic countries and (this outbreak) is probably due more to a change in human behaviour,” said Dr Sylvie Briand, WHO’s director of pandemic and epidemic diseases.
Health authorities in the United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday, May 24, also detected the country’s first case of the monkeypox virus in a young woman who was traveling from West Africa.