MINISTER of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, on Friday, said that Guyana’s surveillance team has been on high alert since several countries reported cases of monkeypox.
The minister made this disclosure during his COVID-19 update where he emphasised that Monkeypox is not a new virus.
Monkeypox, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) is a virus which is transmitted to humans with symptoms similar to those seen in smallpox patients.
During his update, Dr Anthony stated that last year there were cases of the virus reported in different countries; however, this year cases have appeared in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and other European countries.

He added that, since there are now more vigilant surveillance systems around the world, authorities are able to detect these things much earlier.
“Similarly, here, when we saw that countries were reporting we had also put our surveillance team on alert and we have sent out a memo to all of our doctors to identify what are the clinical symptoms of monkeypox,” Dr. Anthony said.

As such, the Health Minister noted that the monkeypox has a lot of similarities to the chickenpox and, as a result, authorities would have to ensure that proper differentiation is done. However, the authorities are checking.
Earlier this week, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Narine Singh, had told the Guyana Chronicle that the ministry had put out a medical alert so that healthcare professionals can be on alert for persons with possible signs and symptoms of the virus.

According to the WHO, the virus can be spread through animal to human transmission, through direct contact with the blood and other bodily fluids, while human-to-human transmission can result from close contact with respiratory secretions or lesions of an infected person.