Xinhua News Agency
NICOSIA — Cyprus confirmed its first case of monkeypox on Tuesday, Aug. 2, a health ministry spokesman said.
The patient is a 40-year-old man with recent travel history, the spokesman said without revealing the name of the country he had traveled to.
The spokesman said the man sought medical help on Monday after developing early symptoms of an infection.
The infection was confirmed on Tuesday through a molecular laboratory test at the Nicosia General Hospital where the patient is being treated in a special ward reserved for monkeypox cases, he added.
The spokesman said there had previously been 11 false alarms of suspected cases in Cyprus, which helped medical authorities test protocols prepared after the first monkeypox cases were reported by the World Health Organization.
A health ministry statement said that anyone with symptoms including fever, headache, muscle pain, back pain, lymphadenopathy, chills and exhaustion, followed by a rash appearing one to five days after the onset of symptoms, will be considered a suspected case and required to have a PCR test. – gb