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Ministry of Health is ready to deal with monkeypox cases

14/06/2022 07:46

The Ministry of Health has been ready for three weeks now to deal with any monkeypox cases, the Communication Adviser of the Ministry, Constantinos Athanassiou, has told CNA.

The protocols prepared have already been applied in cases of suspicious incidents, he noted, saying that there was another suspicious incident yesterday, in addition to the suspicious incident recorded in Paphos, which in the end was not diagnosed as monkeypox.

The suspicious incidents should not be published, said Athanassiou, however, for the ones that are published, the Ministry is obliged to inform about their progress, he noted.

The only thing that is still pending, according to Athanassiou is the joint proclamation regarding medicines and vaccines at the European level..

The vaccination committee of the Ministry has already made a recommendation, according to which, when the vaccine becomes available, it is recommended to be administered to the health professionals who will have to deal with confirmed cases, and also to the patients' contacts.

This will be evaluated based on the image of the incident, he noted. If someone is going through it painlessly, there will be no reason to be vaccinated, he said, while he noted that the percentage of people who may develop a severe clinical picture and need an antiviral drug or to be vaccinated, is expected to be low.

When the vaccines arrive, this recommendation is expected to be approved by the Minister, he noted.

It does not seem that there is an increased risk for monkeypox that requires a mass vaccination program, equivalent to that against the coronavirus, Athanassiou answered, when asked by CNA.

"We are ready and we are monitoring the data", he said, adding that if at some point 5-6 cases are recorded and the number of beds in the Referral Hospital increases, the relevant protocols are in force.

Nicosia Hospital has been designated as the Reference Hospital for adults and Makareio Hospital for children.