The Ministry of Health has been ready for three weeks to deal with any cases of monkey smallpox, the Ministry's Communications Adviser, Constantinos Athanasiou, told CNA.
Already protocols that have been prepared, have been implemented in cases of suspicious cases, he noted, noting that in addition to the suspicious case reported in Paphos, there was still a suspicious case yesterday, which in the end was not monkeypox.
It is right that suspicious cases do not see the light of day, Athanasiou said, but for those that are published, the ministry is obliged to provide information on their progress, he noted.
The only thing that is still pending, according to Athanasiou, is at the European level, the common notice regarding medicines and vaccines.
The ministry's vaccination committee has already made a recommendation that, when available, the vaccine is recommended to be administered to health professionals dealing with confirmed cases and contacts of cases.
This will also be assessed based on the picture of the case, he noted. If someone passes it painlessly, there will be no need for vaccination, and he noted that there is a very low percentage of people who may develop a severe clinical picture, meaning they may get to the point of needing an antiviral formulation or vaccination.
When the vaccines come in, this recommendation is expected to be approved by the Minister, he noted.
[BR][BR]It does not appear that there is an increased risk of monkeypox that would require a mass vaccination programme equivalent to that against coronavirus, he replied.
"We are ready and monitoring the data," he said, adding that if 5-6 cases are recorded at some point and beds at the Reference Hospital increase, the relevant protocols are in place.
As a reminder, Nicosia Hospital has been designated as the Reference Hospital for monkeypox and Makarios Hospital for children.
Source: CNA
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