La Paz, Aug 8 (EFE) .- Bolivia confirmed this Monday 5 cases of seismic smallpox or monkeypox in the eastern department of Santa Cruz, while 14 people suspected of the disease are under “medical surveillance”.

Health Minister Jeyson Auza told a press conference that of the five cases, two are indigenous infections, as they were caused by “in-country contacts”.

The minister explained that the health authorities carry out “exhaustive surveillance” in order to define the “traceability of the disease”, since the confirmed cases are not necessarily linked to each other.

Auza explained that the first case, of a 38-year-old man, corresponds to contact he had with a Canadian citizen, while the second is associated with a 26-year-old Brazilian man living in Bolivia who contracted the disease during of a trip. to his country.

The third is a 42-year-old man with “a history (of travel) in Brazil”, he claimed.

While the other two cases correspond to two men, 27 years old each, whose transmissions took place in the country, the minister reported.

Regarding the 14 suspected cases, Auza mentioned that they are people who are part of the “close contacts” of the patients diagnosed positive, which is why they all undergo a health “follow-up”.

The minister also reported that some 28 suspected cases that occurred in other parts of the country have already been ruled out.

The Bolivian government declared an epidemiological alert in May and presented a protocol for the nine regions of the country in the event of suspected cases of this disease.

Monkeypox has symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches, and the appearance of scabs and blisters that appear on the face, palms of the hands, or soles of the feet, among other parts of the body.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that as of August 4, there were some 26,326 cases of the disease, between probable and confirmed, in 89 countries.