By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

July 15, 2022 – Monkeypox cases have increased high double percentage points over the past ten days with 2614 new cases and 2 new deaths recorded.

Nine new countries have reported cases including four Caribbean countries namely St Lucia, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, The Bahamas and now Turks and Caicos Islands have logged suspected and confirmed cases and the  World Health Organization says for the first time local transmission of Monkeypox has been reported in newly-affected countries without epidemiological links to countries that have previously reported Monkeypox in West or Central Africa.

This is concerning news as it means tracing the outbreak becomes more difficult.

The massive spike has forced the WHO to start biweekly reports to keep the world up to date.  The majority of the 6,027 recorded cases so far remain in Europe with 4,920 but the amount of cases in the Americas is rising with 902 cases so far.  The African region has the third least amount of cases with 173 but the three recorded deaths so far have happened in that region.

Closer to home The Bahamas confirmed their single case on June 24th and Jamaica confirmed their single case on July 6th, both positives were recorded from men who had recently been in London.  Both countries say they are establishing contact tracing and quarantine protocols.

Most of the infected parties so far are male but the disease can infect anyone who has close contact with a symptomatic person or the fluid from their rashes.  Additionally citizens and doctors are now being warned to be aware that Monkeypox may not appear as it once did.

Describing the symptoms in this outbreak as ‘atypical’ the WHO said,

“Many cases in newly-affected areas are not presenting with the classically described clinical picture for Monkeypox (fever, swollen lymph nodes, followed by centrifugal rash).  Among the cases who reported at least one symptom, 81% presented with systemic rash (widespread rash on the body), 50% presented with fever and 41% presented with genital rash.”

Less symptoms and a less obvious rash are becoming more common in many cases and people are advised to be on the alert for this.

Advice from the WHO is to keep infected persons isolated, be on the lookout for any rashes and get tested immediately if you spot one in any area of your body.  Refrain from sustained contact with people with symptoms of Monkeypox as that is how the disease spreads.

Wear personal protective equipment like gloves when handling, sheets, clothing etc. that have been exposed to open sores from positive Monkeypox cases and continue to observe social distancing protocols. .