Mexican health authorities said, on Wednesday, that an American who had symptoms of monkeypox escaped from a tourist city hospital, where he was undergoing treatment, and left the country.
The Department of Health said the 48-year-old, from Texas, escaped from hospital in Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific coast last weekend, despite being told by medical staff to get tested for monkeypox and to remain in isolation.
She added that when he was admitted to the hospital, he developed symptoms of “coughing, chills, muscle aches and a rash on the face and neck.”
After escaping, the injured went to the hotel where he was staying with another person, and boarded a plane from Puerto Vallarta on June 4, before authorities might locate him.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to Mexican authorities on Monday that the patient had returned to the United States, where an examination confirmed that he had monkeypox.
Before arriving in Puerto Vallarta on May 27, the man had visited Berlin and Dallas, and during his stay in Mexico, he attended parties at a night club in the tourist city of Jalisco.
Mexican Health Ministry officials urged everyone who was in the nightclub between May 27 and June 4 to monitor their health.
And the World Health Organization considered on Wednesday that the risk of the monkeypox virus spreading outside the countries where the disease is endemic is “real,” with 1,000 cases already recorded.
