Local May 23, 2022 | 3:12 pm

Public Health vigilant against monkeypox

The number of violent deaths in Santiago rises to 5 during the last 48 hours.

As it is an infectious disease that can be transmitted by contact with body fluids, the identification of a suspected case requires immediate notification to the health authorities

Santo Domingo, DR

Although to date no case of the monkeypox virus has been identified in the country, the General Directorate of Epidemiology activated preventive surveillance, through which it provides guidance on its symptoms and seeks that medical personnel and the general population be attentive to the care and manifestations of the disease.

As it is an infectious disease that can be transmitted by contact with body fluids, the identification of a suspected case requires immediate notification to the health authorities, who must proceed with the search for cases, their isolation, contact tracing, and health care.

The disease, according to specialists, begins with fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, back pain, extreme fatigue, and swollen and prominent lymph nodes, after 1 to 3 days of the onset of fever, then it appears as a skin rash.

in twelve countries

The disease is caused by the monkeypox virus and in the last 10 days cases have been identified in at least 12 countries . Given the wake-up call made by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry of Public Health of the Dominican Republic issued this weekend a preventive epidemiological alert for monkeypox, especially given the identification of cases in the United States, from where the country maintains an active and permanent migratory flow.

Although it specifies that no case of monkeypox has been identified in the Dominican Republic, in its alert document, the Ministry of Public Health makes a series of recommendations, based on those issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ).

Those recommendations include avoiding contact with animals that may harbor the virus, including those that are sick or have been found dead in areas where monkeypox occurs.

Do not touch any material, such as bedding, that has been in the vicinity of a sick animal; isolate infected patients from others, who may be at risk of infection, and practice good hand hygiene after contact with infected animals or humans, such as washing hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Also, wear personal protective equipment when caring for patients.

Wooded areas

According to information from Public Health, monkeypox is a “sylvatic zoonosis with incidental human infections that tend to occur sporadically in forested areas of central and western Africa.”