Morocco has not recorded any cases of Monkeypox to date, a source at the Ministry of Health said on Friday. The Moroccan health authorities ensure at the border level to detect early the entry of this virus into the country.
While the number of cases carrying the Monkeypox viral infection is increasing in Western countries, the threat is approaching Morocco rapidly, but for the moment no cases have been detected in the country at crossing points. borders, airports or Moroccan ports, according to a source within the Ministry of Health, who requested anonymity.
“The health surveillance services of the Ministry of Health, Protection and Social Protection periodically carry out health surveillance operations at all airports, ports and border crossings, in order to detect any incoming cases early and limit the spread. of the virus in our country,” the same source told MoroccoLatestNews FR.
Monkeypox, also known as monkey pox, is “closely monitored by national health authorities”, continues our interlocutor.
And to affirm that Morocco follows “all the recommendations issued by the World Health Organization and all the international health organizations concerning the Monkeypox viral disease”, adding that “at present, the World Health Organization health has yet to declare monkeypox a public health emergency.”
This monitoring is provided by the National Center for Public Health Emergency Operations, a branch of the Ministry of Health (CNOUSP) inaugurated in 2019. In addition to the international health monitoring system, the national epidemiological surveillance system is responsible for ” monitoring of all developments in epidemiological data and recommendations from the World Health Organization,” it says.
As a reminder, the Monkeypox virus is a zoonosis (transmitted from animals to humans, in this case from a monkey, editor’s note). The phenomenon is not widespread in Europe, it hitherto affected countries in Central and West Africa with occasional imported cases. The first case of this viral infection recorded in recent days has been detected in the United States.
It is a viral infection transmissible by the respiratory route like the coronavirus, however a prevalence trend has been recorded in males having homosexual relations. Spain’s health minister says Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease.
Human-to-human transmission can result from close contact with respiratory secretions, skin lesions of an infected person or recently contaminated objects, the incubation period lasts between 6 to 13 days in general but can range from 5 to 21 days .
This long incubation period is what makes this infection so dangerous since an infected person could infect loved ones for a long time before symptoms appear.
These symptoms come in forms of fevers, headaches, backaches, and the formation of lymphadenopathy, large rashes that may at first glance resemble chickenpox or measles.
In Great Britain, an epidemiological alert was launched at the national level after the detection of 9 cases and then other cases which had not left British territory.
On Thursday, Sweden announced that it had recorded its first case of Monkeypox, the same for Italy, and it concerns a traveler from the Canary Islands. Friday, it is the turn of France to announce a first suspected case of monkeypox.
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