Yet placed in solitary confinement, an American suffering from monkeypox fled Mexico to return to the United States.
He escaped from a hospital in the Puerto Vallarta resort town, local authorities said Wednesday.
The 48-year-old, from Texas, left the town on Mexico's Pacific coast after local medical staff told him he should be tested for monkeypox and kept in solitary confinement, the health department of the Mexican state of Jalisco said in a statement.
Club parties
He had arrived at the hospital with symptoms of "cough, chills, muscle aches and rashes on his face, neck and trunk", he said.
After fleeing it, the Texan returned to the hotel where he was staying and flew out of Puerto Vallarta on June 4, before authorities could locate him.
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed to Mexican authorities on Monday that the man had returned to the United States, where he took a test which confirmed he had monkeypox.
Before arriving in Puerto Vallarta on May 27, he had been to Berlin between May 12 and 16, then to Dallas (Texas).
During his stay in the resort located in the state of Jalisco, he attended parties at the Mantamar Beach Club.
Local health departments have asked everyone who attended the facility between May 27 and June 4 to monitor their health.
1,000 cases worldwide
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that more than 1,000 cases of monkeypox had been reported in various countries where it is not endemic, and that the risk of the virus taking hold there was " real ".
The disease is considered much less dangerous and contagious than its cousin, smallpox, eradicated for more than forty years.
The vast majority of reported cases so far concern “men who have sex with men” but a few cases of community transmission, including among women, have been reported.
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