No relation between Guyana’s 2 monkeypox cases – Health Minister

There is no relation between the two individuals who contracted the monkeypox virus and are being monitored by health authorities.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony shared on Tuesday that the two persons who tested positive for monkeypox, a man and woman, respectively, are being treated. However, the data shows that these persons are unrelated. However, it has been reported that both persons hail from Region Four.
“They don’t have any relations…We’ll continue to monitor them and at the appropriate time, we will be able to discharge them. Since we have diagnosed our first case, we have had many suspected cases but when we ran the laboratory test, it was not monkeypox.”
For now, the Minister is cautioning the population to be observant and avoid coming in close contact with persons who have rashes.
“With monkeypox, what we need to do is be more observant. We don’t want people having close contact with persons with rashes. If you are in very close contact with somebody who has rashes on their skin and if that person is confirmed to be infected with monkeypox, you can get infected. In most cases for a person who is infected, within 14 to 21 days, they should be able to recover but there have been more severe cases in the world,” he shared.
In this current wave of monkeypox, 15 persons have died globally. However, it was clarified that skin lesions – one of the identifiable symptoms of monkeypox – can suggest another condition or disease.
“To be on the safe side, it would be good to come in to one of the hospitals or one of the health institutions where a doctor can be able to examine the skin and help to make a more definitive diagnosis. We are able to confirm whether that person has monkeypox or not by doing a PCR test.”
The first individual, in his 50s, tested positive for the disease on August 22 while the second individual tested positive this week.
Guyana has been treating the disease by targeting symptoms experienced or presented in the patient. While countries like the United States have specific antiretroviral medications, the Minister expressed that it would be difficult to access.
“The treatment for monkeypox is basically symptomatic, meaning that if you experience fever, we’re going to treat you for fever. If you have pain, we’re going to treat you for pain. In some countries, like the United States, they have special antiretroviral medicines that they give to very severe cases. Those medicines are under Emergency Use Authorisation licensing. We don’t have access to those medications,” the Health Minister shared on Monday when the second case surfaced. (G12)