MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan authorities suspect 4 cases of monkeypox

COVID-19 cases are also on the rise, former GACH boss Radi explained

Uruguay's Health Ministry (MSP) Thursday announced it was monitoring four cases suspected of being monkeypox. All of them are of people with a travel history to countries where the malady has already been detected.

The MSP's Department of Epidemiology released a statement through social media explaining that all four patients were in good health and in isolation at their homes, while their potential contacts have already been identified and are also being monitored.

Samples have been sent for analysis and the results are due in the next few days. Only then will it be possible to confirm whether it is monkeypox or not, the authorities also pointed out.

The MSP also issued a recommendation to consult a physician at once in case of skin rash with fever or feverish sensation, especially those people who have traveled in the last 21 days. The Health Surveillance System is also to be contacted by telephone: (1934, ext. 4010).

The incubation period of the disease is between five and 21 days, and symptoms last between two and three weeks. These are “fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes, arthromyalgia, asthenia”. Likewise, between days 1 and 3 from the onset of fever, the ”skin rash (macules, papules, vesicles, pustules, crusts)“ appears, which ”usually starts on the face and then spreads to the rest of the body, affecting the face, palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and may involve the oral mucosa, genitals and eyes”. These scabs can take up to three weeks to disappear.

Meanwhile, the former coordinator of the Honorary Scientific Advisory Group (GACH) Rafael Radi raised the possibility of reconsidering the use of face masks in crowded places given the escalation of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Radi has met with President Luis Lacalle Pou, to whom he raised the issue of returning to face-covering sanitary restrictions in crowded places is being generated again.

“In overcrowded places and if the numbers start to grow a lot, it may eventually be a measure to be considered”, Radi told reporters.

The former GACH boss met Lacalle at the presidential residence to deliver a proposal to increase the science budget to go through Parliamentarian debate. Radi explained no amount had been discussed, since that would be up to the head of state to decide.

“The budget for science and technology in Uruguay does not reach 0.4% [of GDP] and there is an old commitment to reach 1%,” Radi explained. “Let's hope that an incremental path is started that will slowly approach that 1 percent in a few years,” he added.