Jamaica’s first monkeypox patient flees hospital
A male who tested positive for monkeypox, to become Jamaica’s first confirmed case of the disease, has absconded the health facility where he had been put into isolation pending his recovery, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has confirmed.
Reports are that after noon Saturday, the patient – who presented to the public health system on July 5, having arrived in Jamaica some five days earlier from the United Kingdom – left through a bathroom window of the facility and had a car waiting. The police have been called in and are investigating.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts are asked to contact the police immediately.
“Monkeypox is a viral disease that can be transmitted from person to person. It is therefore important that anyone with knowledge of the patient’s whereabouts contact the police so that he can be returned to isolation, pending the resolution of his illness,” said Minister of Health & Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton.
A surge in monkeypox cases has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.
To date, more than 5,000 monkeypox cases have been reported from 53 countries worldwide that don’t normally report the disease, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Symptoms of monkeypox include skin rash, fever, headache, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion and can last up to two to four weeks.
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