The National Institute of Health (INS) reported this Friday that the country reached the 164 infections by monkeypox. The institution indicated that the disease is already present in 12 departments of the country.
Until this Friday, August 19, the Ministry of Health has received 792 territorial alerts for possible infections of this virus of African origin, of these, 164 were detected as positive cases.
The official report states that the affected cities and departments are Bogotá, Antioquia, Tolima, Risaralda, Cali, Cartagena, Cauca, Cundinamarca, La Guajira, Santander Valle del Cauca, Quindío, Norte de Santander, Barranquilla and Atlántico.
“Right now there is a concentrated population, we can still monitor the chains, that’s why we are on permanent surveillance.” to prevent us from breaking and losing those chains and falling into a community transmissionwhich for now is not”, warned Claudia Cuéllar, director of Epidemiology and Demography of the INS.
Until this August 16, the city most affected by these infections was Bogotá with 97 of the positives. Antioquia, to that date, reported 14 cases.
The symptoms
From the Ministry of Health and the INS they indicated that the most frequent symptoms are fever, headache and body ache, hives, pustules or accesses on the skin.
“Often after 1 to 3 days of onset of fever Characteristic skin lesions appear. Symptoms can appear between 5 to 21 days after having contact with a sick person, ”explained the INS.
The health authority invited people, who had close contact with an infected person, to report it to track the virus chains and, if necessary, isolate other people who could be infected.