A scientist from the National Center for Microbiology, in Spain, shows the complete sequence of the monkeypox virus, on Thursday, May 26, 2020.Kiko Huesca (EFE)
Argentina confirmed this Friday a positive case of monkeypox, the first detected in a Latin American country.
This is a man in his 40s who visited Spain between April 22 and May 16 of this year.
The case was "suspicious" for a week, the time it took the health authorities to make the etiological diagnosis and confirm the disease.
A second case is under analysis, it is a Spanish citizen, with no links to the confirmed case, who began to have symptoms as soon as he arrived in Argentina for a visit.
"The result of the PCR amplification reaction of the sample taken from the first high-probability case is positive, which confirms infection with poxviruses belonging to the Eurasian-African group of the Orthopox genus," the Argentine Ministry of Health reported in a statement. .
The patient had a fever and blisters on some parts of the body four days after arriving in Buenos Aires from Spain.
He then consulted his private medical service, where he was isolated and controlled while waiting for the clinical results.
The Argentine health authorities treated the case as "suspicious" after finding on Monday "the presence of viral particles compatible with Poxvirus of the Orthopox genus, a virus that does not circulate in Argentina, and that presents a high probability of compatibility with monkeypox."
Five days later,
Added to this positive case is another suspect, which is being analyzed by the virology department of the Malbrán Institute, a public institution that played a fundamental role in the development of therapies against covid-19.
In this case, the patient is Spanish and traveled to Argentina on a visit.
"The appearance of a new suspected case of monkeypox resident in Spain and that has no connection with the first case was reported," the Malbrán Institute said in a press release.
“The person presents ulcerative lesions without other associated symptoms, arrived in the country on May 25 and symptoms began yesterday, May 26, 2022. The patient is in good general condition, isolated, and receiving symptomatic treatment.
His close contacts are under strict clinical and epidemiological follow-up,
If confirmed, there will already be two positive cases in the region.
Bolivia, meanwhile, is also closely following another patient with symptoms consistent with monkeypox, also linked to Spain.
The patient is a 26-year-old man who presented the first symptoms 11 days ago, after having close contact with two people who had arrived in Bolivia from Madrid.
The three are in good health, isolated in a medical center in Santa Cruz de la Sierra (department in the east of the country), as are 14 other people around them.
"We activate epidemiological surveillance, since it complies with both the contact history and the typical symptoms of monkey or monkey pox," said the Secretary of Health of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Fernando Pacheco.
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