The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, announced this Monday (1st) that Brazil will receive the antiviral tecovirimat to “strengthen the fight against the outbreak” of monkeypox in Brazil.
The Ministry has been using the term “outbreak” to describe the disease situation in the country since last week. The outbreak is the first stage of a scale of evolution of the contagion, which can turn into an epidemic, endemic and pandemic – in the case of Covid-19.
In a publication on social networks, Queiroga informed that the drug will be sent through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). “More serious cases will be considered at first”, wrote the minister.
In a press conference last Friday (29/7), the secretary of Health Surveillance of the Ministry of Health, Arnaldo Medeiros, said that the first shipment of vaccines against smallpox from monkeys acquired by Brazil should be delivered in September.
Medeiros stressed that the World Health Organization (WHO) does not recommend, at this time, mass vaccination against the disease. The guidance of the entity is that vaccination is directed to people exposed to someone infected and to those at high risk of infection.
The Ministry of Health will receive, through PAHO (@pahowho), the antiviral tecovirimat to strengthen the fight against the Monkeypox outbreak in Brazil 🇧🇷. More serious cases will be considered at first.
— Marcelo Queiroga 🇧🇷🇧🇷 (@mqueiroga2) August 1, 2022
Until this Sunday (31/7), Brazil had registered 1,342 cases of monkeypox, according to the Ministry of Health. The folder confirmed the first death from the disease in the country last Friday. The victim was a 41-year-old man, hospitalized in Belo Horizonte (MG).
According to the Ministry, the patient had low immunity and comorbidities, including a case of lymphoma, cancer in the lymphatic system, which led to clinical worsening. The cause of death was septic shock, aggravated by Monkeypox virus infection.
*With information from Renata Souza
Source: CNN Brasil
