San Juan, January 15 (EFE).- Puerto Rico is located in a second level of monkeypox outbreak, after the most recent bulletin of the Epidemiological Surveillance System of the Department of Health (DS) registered 208 confirmed cases, the health agency reported this Sunday.
The second level of outbreak means that a local transmission scenario already exists within a defined subpopulation, according to the UK Health Safety Agency, which designed an outbreak categorization system to describe potential monkeypox transmission scenarios. .
Given this, the DS indicated that Puerto Rico is in the second level of the outbreak, since 83.1% of the confirmed cases had no travel history and the most reported transmission route is prolonged and direct close contact, of type skin to skin
The health agency explained that since the beginning of the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Simic Smallpox, a total of 608 alerts have been received.
They are distributed in: 209 confirmed cases for seismic virus (3 confirmed cases non-residents of Puerto Rico), 231 suspected cases, 156 people under investigation, 10 contacts for travel and 2 alerts of cases that belong to another jurisdiction.
For the period from January 5 to 13, 2023, 3 new alerts have been added up to the time of writing this bulletin.
As of January 13, one confirmed case of monkeypox, two suspected cases of monkeypox, and one person under investigation are under monitoring and follow-up by the Office of Epidemiology and Investigation.
Although monkeypox can spread to anyone, transmission of the virus is found primarily in a defined subpopulation with the following characteristics: men who identify as gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men.
This subpopulation reached 176 of 201 cases, for 87.6% and people who have declared having had sexual relations in the last 21 days with one or more partners (140 of 182 cases or 76.9%).
It is worth mentioning that three women have been confirmed (3 of 209 cases; 1.4%) and 25 people of 201 cases (12.4%) have been considered heterosexual.
In Puerto Rico, no deaths related to the disease have been reported. EFE
