Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday recorded its first confirmed case of monkeypox, and the Health Ministry in Guyana is bolstering its surveillance system to quickly detect local occurrences of this infectious disease.
During an interview with Inews on Wednesday, Advisor to the Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, said a monkeypox surveillance system has existed in the country since last year when Guyana recorded its first and only two cases of the virus.
“Given the report out of Trinidad and Tobago, we have heightened our surveillance system. So, we’ve already sent out advisories to the various medical departments -all the regional health services: Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), the private hospitals, and private doctors – so they should be aware, and (be) on the lookout,” Dr Ramsammy has said.
“Part of the heightened surveillance [is that] our health officers are screening people, making sure they know where these people are coming from, [and if] they’re coming from an infected area,” he added.
Monkeypox, caused by the monkeypox virus, is characterised by a skin rash or mucosal lesions that can last between two and four weeks and may be accompanied by fever, headache, muscle aches, low energy, and swollen lymph nodes. The disease can be transmitted to humans through physical contact with someone who is infected, through contaminated materials, or through infected animals.
“Right now, we are advising citizens on what they should be looking out for. So, any kind of unusual rash that people see, they should make sure they go to either a hospital clinic or a health centre,” Dr Ramsammy has said.
Given the prevalence of monkeypox cases within the Region, the Health Ministry had, last July, strengthened its efforts to best tackle the disease by ensuring that relevant health professionals are trained in surveillance and in how to detect and treat the virus. A special unit was also established in the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara to accommodate persons who test positive for the virus locally. Following those efforts, Guyana had, in August, recorded its first two cases of monkeypox about a week apart from each other.
Given the ability to test for the virus, isolate the infected persons, and perform contact tracing, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony had previously said he did not foresee a large number of monkeypox infections in Guyana. Despite this recently reported case in Trinidad, Dr. Ramsammy has maintained this as well.
“We are able to test, [and] because we have provisions in place to isolate those that might be diagnosed or suspected to have monkeypox, we are not likely to see an explosion like we did with COVID-19,” Dr Ramsammy has said.
As of last Tuesday, a World Health Organization (WHO) update indicated a total of 88,144 monkeypox cases detected globally within 112 countries, with a reported 149 deaths. This first case detected in Trinidad and Tobago – the patient being a middle-aged man with travel-related history – comes some two months after WHO declared monkeypox no longer a public health emergency of international concern, due to a declining number of cases globally. Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday confirmed a second case of monkeypox.
Despite this, however, WHO continues to advise country officials to develop long-term control and surveillance strategies.
