MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Third case of monkeypox confirmed in Brazil

The patient had just returned from Portugal last week

Brazilian health authorities Monday confirmed the third case of monkeypox nationwide had been detected. It was a 51-year-old Porto Alegre resident who had returned from Portugal last week.

The Center for Strategic Information in Health Surveillance in Rio Grande do Sul notified the occurrence of an “imported case” of the malady on Sunday, which has been confirmed by the Adolf Lutz Institute in São Paulo.

“The patient is in home isolation, along with his contacts, has a stable clinical picture, without complications, and is being monitored by the state and city health departments,” says a statement from the Health Ministry.

”All containment and control measures were adopted immediately after the communication that it was a suspected case of monkeypox, with the isolation of the patient and the tracking of his contacts, both nationally and on the international flight, which had the support of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa),” it added.

Brazil currently has three confirmed cases, two in São Paulo and one in Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre), while six suspected cases are under investigation. All patients remain isolated and under monitoring.

Meanwhile, the Molecular Virology Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and Lacen, the laboratory of the State Health Secretariat (SES), confirmed tests came out negative in the case of a patient in Macaé, in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro state, the Epidemiological Surveillance of the Municipal Health Secretariat said on the website of the City Hall of Macaé.

”The Epidemiological Surveillance of the Municipal Health Secretariat informs that the report of the tests conducted by the molecular laboratory of virology of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) certifies as negative for smallpox infection (monkeypox virus) the diagnosis of the 43-year-old patient, not a resident of Macaé, admitted in isolation in a private hospital in the city since last Wednesday (8).“

The patient was also reported to be stable and about to be discharged. ”To date, there is no confirmed case of monkeypox in the state” of Rio de Janeiro, the document added.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)