Brazil has 2,004 confirmed cases of monkey pox according to data from the Ministry of Health released this Saturday (6).
The states of São Paulo (1,501), Rio de Janeiro (230), Minas Gerais (81) and Goiás (38) are the ones with the most cases of the disease.
In an interview with CNN the president of the National Council of Health Secretaries (Conass), Nésio Fernandes, said that the country has a rapid expansion of the virus.
“The disease is on its way to having a sustained community transmission throughout the country and may, in the future, also behave with outbreak phenomena in some population clusters, both family, work and school”, he said.
According to Fernandes, changes in the epidemiological profile of the disease must be accompanied by health plans and protocols.
“In the investigation of outbreaks, testing is essential. What is new at this point is that the Ministry of Health has expanded the diagnostic criteria so that anyone with one or more characteristic suspicious lesions can be tested, regardless of the epidemiological link,” said Fernandes.
According to the expert, the expansion of testing allows for the expansion of the disease across the country.
“We would be able, if the samples are collected, to better recognize the behavior of the epidemic that must already be in community transmission in all Brazilian states”, he said.
Monkeypox transmission and symptoms
Monkeypox usually starts with a sudden, strong, intense fever. The patient also has headache, nausea, exhaustion, tiredness and fundamentally the appearance of ganglia (swellings popularly known as “inguas”), which can happen both in the neck region, in the axillary region, and in the genital region.
Monkeypox virus is transmitted from person to person through close contact with injuries, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding. The incubation period is usually 6 to 13 days, but can range from 5 to 21 days.
“The main form of protection is to avoid direct contact with infected people. Bearing in mind that the main form of transmission occurs through skin-to-skin, personal contact, or obviously through contact with personal objects of a patient who is infected with monkeypox”, says Arnaldo Medeiros, secretary of Health Surveillance at the Ministry of Health. Health.
Source: CNN Brasil
