What are the risks that may arise with the arrival of monkeypox in Colombia?

In the last few hours the first three cases of monkeypox in Colombia; two of them They were identified in Bogotá and one in Medellín. This disease has set off alarm bells around the world due to the spread it has had in other countries.

Claudia Cuellardirector of epidemiology at Ministry of Healthexplained on La FM How transmissible can this disease be?: “It can be transmitted from saliva, fluids, or skin lesions. Person-to-person transmission is done under very close contact, that is, if there is face-to-face contact, hand-to-hand contact or also if there is any sexual relationship or intimate between people.”

Although this smallpox does not spread as quickly as covid-19the epidemiologist recommends maintaining the same biosafety measures that were used against the virus. Regarding other implications that monkeypox may have, Cuéllar explained the following:

In what scenarios can the transmission occur?

“If I share cutlery or clothing and have body fluids, the lesions appear in the form of blisters and these can break, so this fluid remains in these elements. So the idea is not to share them and be very careful”

How deadly can monkeypox be?

“Has a 10% mortality rate in endemic areas, that is, Central and West Africa. In other areas this rate is less than 1%can come up to 3%. At the moment this disease is mild and can be resolved spontaneously after two to four weeks.”