Health authorities in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City on Monday announced the country’s first case of monkeypox.
She displayed symptoms like fatigue, chills, muscle aches, headaches and coughing, as well as rashes on several body parts from September 18 while she was traveling in Dubai, the Health ministry reported.
According to the report, the woman returned to HCMC on September 22 and the next day, she went to an ob-gyn hospital for a diagnosis, where she was suspected to be harboring an infectious disease. She was then transferred to the HCMC Hospital of Dermatology and Venereology, where she was suspected to be infected with monkeypox. She is being treated at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases and her health is stable.
She was isolated here and her testing samples were sent to the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Pasteur Institute for analysis.
Her result came back positive on September 25, so she was transferred to the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases for treatment and for the viral genome to be sequenced.
According to the Ministry of Health, she is Vietnam’s first confirmed monkeypox case, all of her close contacts ever since she returned to Vietnam are being monitored.
The Vietnam’s ministry of health has formed teams to fight monkeypox in several localities, while recommending monitoring measures at border gates, medical facilities and public events, local media reported.
Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. Monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox. Monkeypox symptoms are similar to smallpox symptoms, but milder, and monkeypox is rarely fatal. Monkeypox is not related to chickenpox.
Monkeypox was discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research. Despite being named “monkeypox,” the source of the disease remains unknown. However, African rodents and non-human primates (like monkeys) might harbor the virus and infect people.
The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970. Prior to the 2022 outbreak, monkeypox had been reported in people in several central and western African countries. Previously, almost all monkeypox cases in people outside of Africa were linked to international travel to countries where the disease commonly occurs or through imported animals. These cases occurred on multiple continents.
About 70,000 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in 106 countries and territories around the world. 25 deaths have been recorded.