The Jalisco Health Secretariat (SSJ) announced on Saturday that two suspected cases of monkeypox were reported in the state.
These two cases occurred in Puerto Vallarta, for which the authorities installed a module to provide information and assist those who present symptoms.
The first case of the virus was detected on June 7 in a foreign man from the United States, who after traveling to Germany, went to his home in Texas, and then to Puerto Vallarta on May 27 where he went to different gay pride celebrations. Among them, a party at Mantamar Beach Club.
The suspected cases reported today are about a 40-year-old man, originally from Toronto Canada who resides in Puerto Vallarta. He was at the beach club between May 27 and June 4.
By June 7, he began to show symptoms with papules and itching that began in the head, posterior to the thorax, and lower extremities. Given this, he was instructed to remain isolated for 21 days.
While the second case is about a 23-year-old woman, a resident of Zapopan who had interacted with foreigners. She started with symptoms similar to that of the first case on May 31, in addition to fever, and muscle and joint pain.
In both cases, samples were taken, the results of which are still pending at the Institute of Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference (InDRE).
The person believed to be patient zero for the first case in Jalisco is a man from Dallas, Texas, who began with symptoms on May 30: cough, chills, muscle pain, and pustule-like lesions on the face, neck, and trunk.
After asking for advice and going to a hospital in Puerto Vallarta, he was asked to take a test to confirm monkeypox and to isolate, he refused and fled the hospital, putting others at risk doe several more days in the city and during his flight home.
After the positive case of monkeypox was confirmed by health officials in Texas, and the U.S. notified authorities in Jalisco, the Ministry of Health made a call to people who attended parties at the Mantamar Beach Club, where the first case attended, in the period from May 27 to June 4, the same days that the contagion from man to others could occur.
For this reason, the SSJ reinforced the measures for the detection and timely care of the disease in the entity’s health units.
