MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Number of monkeypox cases in Brazil reportedly reaches 78

The Ministry of Health announced Sunday that 76 cases had been confirmed, but the latest reports from other states had not been included, CNN explained

The Brazilian state-run news service Agencia Brasil Sunday confirmed 76 cases of monkeypox nationwide, while CNN spoke of 78 detections as the malady begins to spread throughout the country.

According to Agencia Brasil, ”the Ministry of Health reported this Sunday (3) that, so far, 76 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed throughout the country. Of this total, one case was recorded in the Federal District, one in Rio Grande do Norte, two in Minas Gerais, two in Rio Grande do Sul, two in Ceará, and 16 in Rio de Janeiro and 52 in Sao Paulo.“

”The ministry, through the Situation Room and the Center for Strategic Information in Health Surveillance (CIEVS National) continues in direct coordination with the states for monitoring cases and tracking contacts of patients,” said the ministry in a statement.

Meanwhile, Rio's Health Secretariat reported that until last Friday, 39 suspected cases of the disease had been reported in the state, 13 of which were confirmed, nine patients in the city of Rio, including one case arriving from London, England.

The other cases in the State of Rio de Janeiro were one in Maricá, one in Nova Iguaçu, one in Queimados (a resident of Portugal), and one in Niterói, in the Rio metropolitan area, (the one from England). Six other cases remained under investigation while 20 had been discarded.

According to CNN-Brasil, São Paulo was the state with the highest number of confirmed cases (53), while detections had also been confirmed in Rio Grande do Sul (2), Minas Gerais (2), Ceará (2), Brasilia (1), Paraná (1), and Rio Grande do Norte (1), while 29 suspected cases were under investigation.

The Ministry of Health announced Sunday that 76 cases had been confirmed, but the latest reports from other states had not been included, CNN explained.