The Cuban National Health System maintains a group of actions aimed at preventing and dealing with the risk of spreading monkey pox. In this regard, Dr. Carilda Peña, Deputy Minister of Public Health of Cuba, recently explained that the flowchart for patient care with suspected disease has already been defined.

Likewise, focus control measures were established, and it was decided which care units will be used to attend to cases with the disease.

There are biosafety standards for patients, family members and service providers, taking into account the level of contagiousness and the way in which this pathology spreads, the deputy minister pointed out.

The day before, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health reported that an Italian patient, in Cuba since August 15, became the first case of monkey pox in the Caribbean country.

According to the report, during his stay he stayed in a 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 18 due to their persistence.

The report adds that during the first medical attention provided, the symptoms worsened, for which he required urgent transfer for hospitalization and intensive treatment, arriving at the hospital in cardiac arrest, from which he recovered.

In the physical examination, skin lesions that clinically suspect monkeypox are identified, samples are taken and sent to the National Reference Laboratory of the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, where the infection is confirmed by real-time PCR in the early hours of day 20.

The patient is in critical condition, with danger to his life. Possible associated causes that may have conditioned its severity are studied.The epidemiological investigation is deepened, while the focus control actions are carried out, as provided in the approved protocol to deal with this disease in the country.