The health authorities of Colombia reported this Monday that the country has already accumulated 55 cases of monkeypox, of which 41 are in Bogotaaccording to figures published weekly by the National Institute of Health (INS).
(Monkeypox: how would the contagion be stopped in Colombia?).
The country has also registered infections of the disease in the departments of Antioch (4); Risaralda (3); Tolima (2), and Bolívar, Cundinamarca, La Guajira, Santander and Valle del Cauca (1)added the INS in its bulletin.
So far, Colombia has analyzed 162 cases, of which 55 are confirmed for monkeypox and 65 were ruled out.
“Colombia has the Public Health Surveillance System (Sivigila) certified (…) as one of the most reliable for the quality of its data”, added the National Institute of Health.
On July 26, the Government raised the risk of monkeypox transmission from moderate to high.
(Monkeypox: experts clarify doubts about this disease).
The Epidemiological Committee decided “increase the level of risk of community transmission from a moderate level to a high level” and an action plan to increase diagnostic capacity and the care network in each department.
Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international health emergency, its highest level of alert, due to the current outbreak of this disease, which already has more than 26,000 cases (nine of them fatal) in nearly 90 countries. , many of them in Europe, where the disease was not endemic.
(Colombia is in the ‘containment phase’ of monkeypox).
Usually it is less dangerous than conventional smallpox, a disease that caused millions of deaths over millennia, but that was eradicated globally 40 years ago, and usually manifests itself with a strong fever that quickly leads to skin rashes, especially on the face.
EFE
