Since last week, when the Ministry of Public Health issued the preventive alert for the international circulation of the monkey poxthe country’s airports, ports and border posts are under surveillance.
The information was offered this Wednesday by the national director of Epidemiology, Ronald Skewes.
Similarly, Skewes announced that “probably by this Friday, we will already have the protocol in the country finalized for monkeypox.”
The epidemiologist stressed that “tourism is very sensitive,” but surveillance is already being applied properly, especially at airports.
For his part, the director of the Dermatological and Surgery Institute of the Fur Dr. Huberto Bogaert, Víctor Pou Soares, stated that so far, the Dominican Republic continues without cases of said disease.
He highlighted that the monkey pox it is less aggressive than traditional smallpox and intimate contact with the patient’s lesions is needed to become infected.
Similarly, he recalled that those born before 1980 already have protection because as children they received the traditional smallpox vaccine.
“We are in a position to receive, treat (the disease) and that this does not happen to more in the country,” Pou declared.
“We are here to give peace of mind to the population because we cannot go into despair that all blistering injuries are going to be monkey pox“he clarified.
Pou established that the treatment will depend on the patient’s symptoms, since there is no single specific procedure.
“It is a little communicable disease, compared to the common smallpox”, emphasized the doctor.
Finally, he asked people, in case of suspicion, to isolate themselves in their homes until they receive the diagnosis.
He said symptoms usually go away by 21 days when all the scabs (the layer or scab that covers the condition) have fallen off and the patient is no longer infecting others.
