Health and Wellness Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton, says the confirmation of a fourth positive case of monkey pox in a man who had no recent history of travel or contact with a previous case, may indicate that there are unknown cases of the virus in the population.
The Minister’s observation follows yesterday’s confirmation of a second case of local transmission.
This brings the total number of known cases of monkey pox in Jamaica to four.
Dr. Tufton says as there’s no evidence linking the patient to a previously detected case, health officials suspect there could be undetected cases in Jamaica.
The Minister says that contact tracing exercise is now underway in relation to the latest case of the virus.
The Ministry has so far conducted 13 tests for monkeypox.
11 persons are in home quarantine, while man is currently hospitalised with the virus.
The Health Minister says the character of monkey pox is showing that it’s spreading at a slower rate than viruses such as COVID-19.
But, he’s urging the population to continue to maintain vigilance and exercise transmission prevention methods.
Dr. Tufton says the government has already ordered a shipment of monkey pox vaccines.
Dr. Christopher Tufton, Health and Wellness Minister.
