Switzerland announces first case of monkeypox

Today, Saturday, health officials in Switzerland announced the first case of monkeypox for a person living in the canton of Bern, noting that he contracted the disease outside the country.
The Health Authority in Bern said that the patient underwent treatment and is now subject to isolation at home, according to “AFP”.
And the health authority stated in a statement that everyone who had contact with the patient was informed, adding: “To the best of our knowledge, the person in question was exposed to the virus abroad.”
Switzerland thus joins several Western countries, including Britain, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the United States in reporting cases, raising fears of the virus’ spread.
Yesterday, Friday, the World Health Organization published an introductory guide about the monkeypox virus, after recording about 80 suspected cases so far in Europe, America and Australia.
The virus first appeared among humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, when a 9-year-old child contracted it, in an area from which smallpox disappeared in 1968.
Monkeypox is mainly found in tropical rainforest regions of central and western Africa, but the disease has appeared in other parts of the world in recent days. Its symptoms include fever, rash, and swollen lymph nodes.
Other experts considered that the spread of this epidemic in Europe may indicate new mutations that are able to spread outside rainy tropical environments.