QCOSTARICA – Costa Rica has already ruled out six suspected cases of monkeypox after different laboratory tests were carried out and these confirmed that none of these people had the disease.
According to the Ministry of Health, they are four foreigners and two Costa Ricans. All of them are already without the symptoms.
This disease has several manifestations, mostly mild, including skin outbreaks that form pustules or blisters, fever, weakness, malaise, and headaches and body aches.
On Wednesday, thanks to a donation by the Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) – Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Costa Rican Institute for Research and Teaching in Nutrition and Health (Inciensa) can carry out the detection tests in real time, to know if a suspected case is monkeypox or not.
Previously, the sample collected of a suspected case was sent out of the country for analysis, which delayed confirmation.
To obtain the new supplies for the tests, Inciensa and laboratories from eight other countries were invited to participate in a training workshop, in Mexico, on the molecular technique (PCR in real time) of the virus that causes monkeypox.
At the event, PAHO provided each participating country with a kit for specific molecular detection (PCR) of monkeypox and a set of primers and probes for the molecular detection protocol. These devices are those recommended by PAHO and by the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC).
Across the globe, Monkeypoz has already more than 6,000 cases in 58 countries on all continents.
“I remain concerned about the magnitude and spread of the virus. The tests continue to be a challenge, it is very likely that there will be a very large number of cases that have not been detected,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization (WHO), at a press conference.
According to the WHO chief, 80% of the patients are in Europe, but cases are also being seen in African countries where an outbreak had never been seen, and in those that do exist, the incidence of the disease is increasing.
