The Health Ministry said on Sunday it was investigating a second suspected case of monkeypox in Israel.
This announcement comes 24 hours after the official confirmation of the first case in the Jewish state.
The suspected patient had recently traveled to Western Europe, the ministry said in a statement without giving further details.
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According to Channel 12, the man is hospitalized and currently in isolation at Barzilai Hospital in the coastal city of Ashkelon.
The chain added that the health status of this 27-year-old individual was good.
The Kan public broadcaster said the man was a sailor working on a cargo ship anchored in Ashdod port.
Illustrative photo: The right arm and torso of a patient whose skin shows several lesions caused by monkeypox. (Credit: CDC via AP)
For its part, the Palestinian Authority said on Sunday morning that no case of smallpox had been detected in the West Bank territories under its control.
“People arriving from abroad are being traced,” Palestinian Authority Health Ministry spokesman Kamal al-Shakhra said in a statement.
Monkeypox usually causes fever, headache, muscle pain, back pain, within the first five days. Then rashes, lesions, pustules and finally scabs appear.
The director general of the Ministry of Health, Nachman Ash, stressed this Sunday that “this is not another coronavirus.”
“This kind of disease comes back from time to time,” he said.
“We plan to primarily vaccinate at-risk populations and intend to do so,” he continued, noting that it was not necessary to immunize the entire population.
Until 1996, soldiers were vaccinated against smallpox when they joined the army, a vaccine that partially protects against monkeypox. This implies that much of the country’s adult population currently benefits from a form of defense against disease.
Director General of the Ministry of Health Nachman Ash speaks during a meeting at Sheba Hospital in Ramat Gan on Oct. 24, 2021. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
The country’s coronavirus control official Salman Zarka told Kan TV that monkeypox “is a moderate disease that is much less infectious than coronavirus.”
Zarka said existing vaccines and treatments were effective against the disease.
The first suspected case of monkeypox in the Jewish state was reported on Friday and confirmed during a meeting of health officials on Saturday night.
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