Macau confirmed on Friday its second case of Monkeypox involving a 37-year-old local male patient with a genital rash, the Health Bureau (SSM) said in a statement on that day.
According to the statement, the patient sought treatment at the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre’s emergency department on Wednesday after developing a genital rash last Monday. Friday’s statement noted that the patient, who was diagnosed with Mpox earlier that day, was in a stable condition. Mpox was previously known as Monkeypox. The World Health Organisation (WHO) decided earlier this year to rename it Mpox as it considered the previous term subject to racist connotations.
The statement said that the patient had engaged in high-risk sexual behaviour in Macau during the incubation period. It also quoted the patient as saying that he was not involved in such activities during his trip to Taiwan from December 8-11, nor after the onset of the illness.
The patient was not vaccinated against Mpox, according to the statement, which said on Friday that the bureau was still identifying the man’s close contacts and the source of his infection.
In response to the increase in Mpox cases in neighbouring areas, its risk of transmission in Macau has increased, the bureau said, urging the public to avoid high-risk sexual behaviour such as casual or multiple sexual partners, prevent contact with persons or animals suspected of being infected with the Mpox virus, or contaminated items. The bureau also urged those aged at least 18 and at high risk of catching Mpox to consider getting vaccinated against the disease at a local health centre or station, while seeking medical attention as soon as possible and informing the doctor of the relevant contact history when Mpox symptoms have developed.
According to the statement, Mpox patients will develop fever, headache, lymph node swelling, muscle pain and other early symptoms, about five to 21 days after infection with the virus, with most of them developing a chickenpox like rash at the same time, which can appear on the face, limbs, palms, soles of the feet, mouth and throat mucosa, anus, genitalia and other places in the following one to three infection days. The statement pointed out that such symptoms generally disappear within two to four weeks.
Undated file photo of a Mpox patient’s hand and wrist. – Photo courtesy of World Health Organisation (WHO)
