Guyana records 2nd case of monkeypox; patient not linked to 1st case

Black Immigrant Daily News

Guyana has recorded a second case of Monkeypox virus, the Minister of Health has confirmed. The patient is a woman from the Georgetown area who is believed to be in her early 30’s and is not linked to the first case which was discovered a week ago. The patient, like the first case, also has no travel history.

“So Guyana now has its second case of monkeypox”, the Health Minister declared.

During an update today, the Minister also said contact tracing has commenced to ascertain if anyone else might have been infected.

With the country now recording its second case of the disease, the Minister said the focus now is on treatment. He said currently, it is difficult for Guyana to access the treatment for the disease.

“The treatment for Monkeypox is basically symptomatic, if you experience fever, we are going to treat you for fever, if you experience pain, we are going to treat you for pain, in some countries like the United State, and they have specific antiretroviral medicines that they give to very severe cases. Those medicines are under Emergency Use authorization license, we don’t have access to those medications in Guyana and it will be quite difficult for us to access those,” the Minister said.

“If you had smallpox vaccination, that vaccination helps to prevent monkeypox, but we haven’t administered those vaccine since the 1980’s, so there is a large group of people in the country, who would not have receive that vaccine, you have a large group of vulnerable people, “ the Health Minister explained.

Guyana has activated its response to fight the disease, these include laboratories, trained laboratory personnel, and physicians who have been trained to identify the viral disease.

The Minister is appealing to Guyanese to take all precautions and report suspected cases of the disease. — News Source

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