The ship comes from Santos city, southeastern Brazil.
Argentine health authorities ordered the isolation on the Paraná River of a freight ship from Brazil after a crew member was reported withsymptoms compatible with mpox disease“The director of Health Promotion and Prevention of the Province of Santa Fe, Analía Chumpitaz, said Wednesday.
“This is a case that was reported when the ship entered the channel. Last night (on Tuesday) the border health unit went up to the ship to take a sample and by noon approximately (15H00 GMT) we will have the result,” Chumpitaz explained at a press conference.
In the meantime,“the ship is not allowed for people to come down”, he pointed and remains“in quarantine” anchored in the Paraná River at the entrance to the port of San Lorenzo de Rosario, 310 km northwest of the Argentine capital.
It is a cereal ship from the city of Santos, southeastern Brazil, with the flag of Liberia.The number of crew on board was not reported by the authorities.
The patient who presented the suspicious symptoms was quickly isolated from the rest, according to the planned protocols, the Argentine Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Since 2022Argentina has recorded some cases of mpox,But none of the variant recently detected in Africa and deserved a special alert from the World Health Organization (WHO).
“So far that variant does not circulate here,” Chumpitaz explained.
Argentina has called for a strengthening of all epidemiological surveillance measures, especially in border areas.
On 14 August, WHO launched an international public health alert for an outbreak of mpox originating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and limited for the time being to Africa, that of the IB clade, the most dangerous and contagious strain of those identified so far.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo