La Paz, August 2, 2022 (ANF) .- The Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza, reported this morning that the National Director of Epidemiology in collaboration with the Departmental Health Service (Headquarters) of Santa Cruz are carrying out the search for the “patient zero” who infected the 38-year-old citizen of Santa Cruz with monkey pox; They suspect a Canadian citizen.

“The information currently collected in the department of Santa Cruz is important. Our epidemiology team, led by our national director of epidemiology, is in Santa Cruz to review the epidemiological file, to carry out the investigation again if necessary, so that with coordinated work with the departmental health service, we can investigate all contacts. We need to know who is the person who infected this 38-year-old patient in Santa Cruz, who is “case 0”. Apparently, this person could have been infected by a Canadian citizen who was or would have been in contact with this 38-year-old,” Auza told a press conference.

The health authority has maintained that at present the isolation of three people who have been in contact with the first confirmed case has been carried out to carry out the epidemiological blockade; These patients will remain under observation for the next 20 days, a period sufficient for the incubation of the disease.

In case of detection of some of the characteristic symptoms of the disease, laboratory analyzes will be carried out with the samples and reagents already counted in the national laboratories.

The Minister of Health has warned that there is no specific treatment at the moment, treatment can only be applied to symptoms ranging from headaches, sudden onset of fever above 38 degrees, muscle aches, backache, feeling of exhaustion and swollen glands and the characteristic is the rash which starts on the face and then descends to the trunk, feet and hands.

//FPF//