The Health Ministry said Sunday it was investigating a second suspected case of monkeypox in Israel.
This announcement comes 24 hours after the official confirmation of the very first case in the Jewish state.
The alleged 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 solitary confinement at Barzilai Hospital in the coastal city of Ashkelon.
The chain added that the state of health of this 27-year-old individual was good.
The Kan public broadcaster said the man was a sailor working on a cargo ship that had anchored at the port of Ashdod.
Illustrative photo: The right arm and torso of a patient whose skin shows a number of lesions caused by monkeypox. (Credit: CDC via AP)
For its part, the Palestinian Authority noted 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 tracked,” PA 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 appear rashes, lesions, pustules and finally scabs.
The Director-General of the Ministry of Health, Nachman Ash, stressed on Sunday that “this is not another coronavirus”.
“This kind of disease comes back from time to time,” he said.
“We plan to vaccinate mainly populations at risk and we 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 a large part of the adult population in the country currently benefits from a form of defense against the disease.
Health Ministry Director General Nachman Ash speaks during a meeting at Sheba Hospital in Ramat Gan on October 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 the coronavirus.”
Zarka said existing vaccinations 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.