Peru Declares Alert To Prevent Monkeypox Spillover

Faizan Hashmi Published May 20, 2022 | 02:00 AM

BUENOS AIRES (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2022) Peru's Health Minister Jorge Lopez Pena has announced an indefinite sanitary alert, effective Friday, after several European countries reported monkeypox outbreaks.

"We are declaring an alert effective tomorrow, May 20... We have no cases yet but we are declaring an alert to prevent such eventuality," Lopez Pena told a news conference.

Monkeypox primarily occurs in tropical rainforests of Central and Western Africa but the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain and the United States have recently confirmed cases of the viral disease.

Monkeypox manifests itself as fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes and may lead to a range of medical complications. It is clinically similar to smallpox and symptoms may be milder in people vaccinated against smallpox.