Abu Dhabi Public Health implements strict preventive measures regarding the “monkeypox” virus

The Abu Dhabi Center for Public Health stressed the continuous coordination with the health authorities in the country to implement all strict preventive measures with regard to infectious diseases to preserve the public health of community members.

The Department of Health - Abu Dhabi noted that, based on the Abu Dhabi Center for Public Health's follow-up to the global situation, all health facilities operating in the emirate must investigate monkeypox disease, and the need to report any suspected, potential or confirmed case through the electronic reporting system for communicable diseases. Noting that this notice comes within the framework of its measures aimed at combating communicable diseases and limiting their spread to protect society and preserve public health.

Monkeypox is a rare virus similar to human smallpox, and was first detected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1970s, and cases have increased in West Africa during the past decade, and symptoms of the disease include fever, headache and rash, which begins on the face and spreads to the rest of the body, and rodents are the main reservoir. However, humans can catch monkeypox through close contact with infected people, and the infection is usually mild and most people recover within a few weeks.

According to the World Health Organization website, infection with the disease occurs due to direct contact with the blood of infected animals, their body fluids, skin lesions, or mucous fluids. Transmission of the disease can occur at the secondary level, or from one person to another through secretions or contact

The disease is transmitted primarily through respiratory particles that take the form of droplets that usually require long periods of face-to-face contact, which exposes family members of active cases to a high risk of infection with the disease, and it is also possible for the disease to be transmitted through sexual relations or through the placenta .

According to the World Health Organization, the incubation period for monkeypox (which is the period between the stage of infection and the stage of symptoms appearing) ranges between 6 and 16 days, but it is also possible that it ranges between 5 and 21 days, as the stage of monkeypox infection is divided into two periods, the first period It is the invasion period (0 day and 5 days), and its signs include fever, severe headache, swollen lymph nodes, back and muscle pain, and severe weakness (loss of energy).

In the second stage, the rash appears (within a period ranging between 1 and 3 days after the fever), and the various stages of the appearance of the rash crystallize, which begins on the face most often and then spreads to other parts of the body.