Cuban authorities confirm the country's capability to face monkepox

HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 22 (ACN) The first secretary of the Party's Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Diaz-Canel, confirmed today that Cuba is prepared to face smallpox, after detecting the first case in the country.

On Twitter, the president stressed that the Cuban health system is reinforcing actions to prevent and face the risk of the spread of the infectious disease.

The head of state also posted a link to an article in the Granma newspaper, which states that surveillance at the country's entry points has been increased and health personnel have been trained for the timely detection of suspected cases.

According to officials of the Ministry of Public Health ( MINSAP by its Spanish acronym), they also defined the workflow for the care of patients with suspected cases of the disease, established the measures for the control of the outbreak, and set up the health care units for the care of confirmed cases.

Recently, MINSAP reported the detection of the first patient with monkeypox in Cuba: an Italian tourist who arrived in the country on August 15, and went to the health services three days later, when he presented symptoms of the disease.

On July 23, the World Health Organization (WHO) conceptualized the outbreak of monkeypox as a global health emergency.

It is a viral zoonosis, the clinical signs of which are usually fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes, and symptoms last two to four weeks, and the disease can cause severe illness, WHO stated.