(ANSA) – TRIESTE, 19 AUGUST – “Our Regional Health Service, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, has been monitoring the evolution of cases of Mpox – monkeypox – since 2022, integrating, from the following year, the GMI data collection system, in collaboration with the Ministry. The data collected and the constant monitoring carried out comfort us in saying that the situation is under control and there are no critical issues currently affecting Friuli Venezia Giulia”. This was stated by the regional health councillor Riccardo Riccardi, explaining that the checks of the laboratory for infectious diseases precisely identify the type of virus, carrying out an accurate genomic sequencing.
“Responding to the provisions of the WHO and indicated by the Ministry, the Regional Health System of Fvg has increased the alert level by activating the Prevention Departments. We confirm that there are no cases attributable to the new strain (Clade I) of Mpox, or the aggressive variant of the disease”.
In 2003, there was an outbreak in the United States, but these were always “imported” cases. After the state of global emergency declared by the WHO in 2022, on August 14, 2024, a global emergency was declared again due to an ongoing epidemic in some central states of the African continent. “At the moment, the total cases recorded in the region, since monitoring has been active, May 2022, have been 17, of which only 4 were recorded in 2024. None of these cases were part of the most aggressive strain of the disease,” Riccardi specified. Since August 2022, Mpox vaccines have already been available at vaccination services and, at this time, the regional supply is 107 vials of the IMVANEX vaccine and 23 vials of the JYNNEOS vaccine, “necessary supplies to deal with any cases that may arise; vaccination is already proposed and offered to the categories indicated by the Ministry as at risk”: laboratory personnel who may have direct exposure to the orthopoxvirus; male subjects who may have had sex with other men in the last 3 months or with multiple partners or have practiced risky sex also associated with the use of chemical drugs. The Region has made an information brochure available. The virus has two strains, the more aggressive one can also be transmitted by inhalation; the other is not highly transmissible and requires close contact with body fluids or skin lesions already present in the infected subject. The course of the disease, which presents symptoms such as fever, muscle pain, headache, swollen lymph nodes and skin lesions (vesicles, pustules, small crusts) is benign in most cases and resolves spontaneously in 2-4 weeks without therapy or with the administration of antivirals. (ANSA).
2024-08-19 22:06:44