South Africa’s health minister, Joe Pahla, announced on the 23rd (local time) that the first case of monkeypox was confirmed in South Africa.
Minister Pahla said at a press conference broadcast live on TV today that a man in his 30s living in the economic center of Johannesburg had been confirmed to have contracted monkeypox.
The man said he had never traveled abroad, adding that “this means that the disease cannot be considered transmitted outside of South Africa.”
He also said that he was in the process of tracing the contact path of the confirmed person.
Monkey smallpox, a viral disease, mimics flu-like symptoms and causes skin lesions.
It is an endemic disease that mainly occurred in West Africa and was not endemic in South Africa.
/yunhap news
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