Barbados and Martinique have confirmed their first cases of monkeypox.
Barbadian Health Minister Ian Gooding-Edghill announced the development in a statement which was published by Barbados Today on Saturday.
The patient, a man in his thirties, attended the Winston Scott Polyclinic with symptoms of a progressive rash, body pains, and fever, according to Gooding-Edghill.
He said swab samples were sent to the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory for testing, which came back positive.
Meanwhile, in Martinique the Regional Health Agency issued a statement saying that it had detected its first case of the virus on the French island.
The statement said the patient, who was treated a few days ago, had travelled to a region where monkeypox was circulating.
The patient showed no signs on serious illness and was placed in solitary confinement at home.
Both islands have began investigations to trace the chain of contacts.
On July 6, Jamaica confirmed its first case of the virus in a man who had travelled to the United Kingdom.
He was placed in isolation and his close contacts quarantined following contact tracing.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US, 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.”
Symptoms of the virus include:
Fever
Headache
Muscle aches and backache
Swollen lymph nodes
Chills
Exhaustion
A rash that can look like pimples or blisters that appears on the face, inside the mouth, and on other parts of the body, like the hands, feet, chest, genitals, or anus.
