First case of simian smallpox -- Monkeypox -- diagnosed in Cuba

Havana, August 20 (RHC)-- The Ministry of Public Health reported this Saturday that the first case of simian smallpox has been detected in the country.  It is a male patient, of Italian nationality, who arrived in Cuba as a tourist on August 15th.

During his stay, he rented house and visited several places in the western provinces of the country.  On August 17, he presented general symptoms and went to the health services on August 18th, due to the persistence of these symptoms.

During the first medical attention the symptoms worsened, requiring urgent transfer for hospitalization and intensive treatment, arriving at the hospital in cardiac arrest, from which he recovered.

On physical examination, skin lesions were identified that raised clinical suspicion of simian pox.  Samples were taken and sent to the national reference laboratory of the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, where the infection was confirmed by real-time PCR in the early morning hours of Saturday,  August 20th.

The patient is in critical and life-threatening condition.  We are studying possible associated causes that may have conditioned his severity.  The epidemiological investigation is also being carried out in depth and outbreak control actions are being carried out, in accordance with the protocol approved to deal with this disease in the country.