By Chantalé Fletcher
WHILE there are no confirmed cases of Monkeypox in Trinidad and Tobago, the Howler Monkey population was still being monitored.
This was the assurance given Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram at the virtual media conference of the Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
Dr Parasram said there was constant monitoring for any kind of outbreaks, especially among the Howler Monkey population in certain parts of the country.
He said both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture try to ensure that no outbreaks take place.
In making reference to yellow fever, he said when Howlers start to die or get ill they leave the forested regions and go to the verges of the roads and communities.
Dr Parasram said, “There has been monitoring throughout and blood sampling in the case of deaths through the Vet Public Health lab in UWI.”
He said Monkeypox could also infect small mammals, rodents, squirrels and not only primates but was also zoonotic which meant it could be transferred from animals to humans.
No confirmed cases in the Caribbean
As of Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed there are now 158 cases of the Monkeypox virus.
Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO)/World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative for Trinidad and Tobago and the Dutch Kingdom Territories Dr Erica Wheeler made the announcement at the press conference on Wednesday.
She also said that 117 suspected cases of the virus were under investigation reported in 19 non-endemic countries across the four WHO regions.
Dr Wheeler said, “There are no associated deaths reported to date and all samples were confirmed by PCR testing and were also identified as being infected with the West African variant of Monkeypox.”
She added that there were no reported cases to date in the Caribbean.
Dr Wheeler said public health investigations were ongoing in countries where the virus has been identified, inclusive of extensive case-finding, contact tracing laboratory investigations, clinical management, isolation and supportive care.
In addition, where available genomic sequencing was used to determine which variant of the Monkeypox virus was present in the outbreak, as well as vaccination to manage close contacts.
Surveillance
She said a person of any age presenting with Monkeypox in a non-endemic country with an unexplained acute rash since March 15 and had one or more of the following:
- Headache;
- Acute onset of fever, (more than 38.5°C);
- Swollen lymph nodes;
- Myalgia;
- Bback pain; and
- Profound weakness.
In terms of risk assessment, Dr Wheeler added older persons gained cross-protective immunity from smallpox vaccination since the population worldwide under 40 to 50 years no longer benefited from protection from the smallpox vaccination programs.
However, younger persons in non-endemic countries had little immunity.
Quarantine Measures
Dr Parasram said the quarantine period for the Monkeypox could last up to 21 days to ensure no further spread of the virus, as opposed to the 14 days for Covid-19.
However, he added it would depend on whether cases were detected and on the scale and scope of the virus.
In terms of the probability, Dr Parasram said the Monkeypox virus was moderate-risk based on the ratings of the Americas placed through their International Health Regulations (IHR) at this point in time, but it was subject to change.
He said, “There were cases in America, Canada, UK and Europe and we have frequent travel to those areas, so moderate-risk at this point is probably the best assessment so far.”
