Belgium makes 21-day quarantine compulsory for monkeypox patients

Belgium has recently reported a spike in the number of monkeypox cases, which has forced the nation to become the first country to make a 21-day quarantine compulsory for patients.

Belgian health authorities have finalised this decision on Friday.

Monkeypox is a disease in the same family as smallpox, and symptoms include a distinct bumpy rash, a fever, sore muscles and a headache. Monkeypox is less deadly as compared to smallpox, with a mortality rate below 4 per cent, but experts are worried about the unusual spread of the disease beyond Africa, where it usually circulates.

As per Saudi Gazette, citing Belgian daily Le Soir, “The Belgian Institute of Tropical Medicine has said that the risk of a larger outbreak in the country is low.”

While taking to Twitter, the microbiologist Emmanuel Andre, who is in charge of the National Reference lab for COVID-19 in Belgium on Saturday, said that the fourth case has been confirmed in the nation.

He tweeted, while noting a festival in the port city held in May, “The patient is being treated in Wallonia and is linked to the Antwerp event in which two other people were infected.”

On Saturday, the World Health Organization reported that there were total of 92 confirmed cases in 12 different nations, with 28 suspected cases under probe. Cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in the UK, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, the US, Canada and Australia, as per reported by Saudi Gazette.

On May 7, a case of monkeypox has been confirmed in England, in a patient who recently travelled from Nigeria, according to the UK Health Security Agency.

On May 18, the US Massachusetts Department of Public Health confirmed a single case of monkeypox virus infection in an adult male with recent travel to Canada.