Marruecos crea un plan para combatir los casos de viruela del mono

During the weekly session of oral questions in the House of Representatives, the Moroccan Ministry of Health announced the implementation of a new plan to combat monkeypox. Khalid Ait Taleb, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, told the Moroccan House of Representatives that if the programme is implemented, the disease will not have the same capacity to spread as the coronavirus. 

Ait Taleb assures that his department has rushed to create the plan in response to a possible crisis and to ensure that things do not get worse and that Moroccans are not affected. To this end, the Ministry is going to develop this programme in four phases to prevent negative consequences such as those experienced with COVID-19.

In the first phase, all types of health workers will be trained to receive as much information as possible about the disease. They will begin to be trained to know the characteristic symptoms of the virus and, in order to be able to diagnose and treat those infected in time to prevent maximum spread.

The second phase will be to send the results as quickly as possible and to treat this type of smallpox in the laboratories. There, the diagnostic process will be carried out. According to Ait Taleb, Morocco currently has four centres specialised in this type of disease, where monkeypox can be diagnosed quite quickly and effectively. 

The third phase will then begin. In this part of the process, the aim is to identify and manage those cases that are suspicious and which, due to certain circumstances, are difficult to identify. From this, the fourth phase of the plan will begin. During this part, the separation of infected persons from their contacts will begin. 

In the event that a person is confirmed to be infected, he or she will have to be isolated in his or her usual residence for three weeks without contact with any other type of person. In the event that the situation becomes critical, the patient may require hospital admission, provided he/she has lung, brain or eye-related conditions. Until this happens, the patient will have to rest at home until the illness passes.

At the moment, the Ministry of Health has stated that they are not worried about the situation, but it is better to take measures so that the virus does not spread. The minister pointed out that this virus is not as contagious as the coronavirus and its transmission has to be through fairly close relations. Ait Taleb stressed during the session that there is no cure for this disease, but the good thing is that the virus disappears after three weeks after infection, so it is not necessary to take restrictive measures. 

Morocco confirmed the first case of a person infected with monkeypox on 2 June. The person was from a country in Europe, the current epicentre of transmission of the disease. The Kingdom ensured rapid action thanks to the protocol established during the pandemic to prevent incidents like this one. 

According to official media and the ministry itself, the patient is stable and isolated, and there are no fears that the disease will be too aggressive for him. Even so, Ait Taleb says he is under medical supervision in accordance with Alawi health measures in this situation. 

The monkeypox virus is becoming a cause for concern, and many nations such as Morocco are worried about whether it is a new global pandemic and its possible repercussions. Mouad Elmrabet, coordinator of Morocco's National Centre for Public Health Emergency Operations conducted an interview to calm the waters on the issue in the face of mass hysteria. During the session, he explained the differences between the COVID-19 virus and this smallpox virus, pointing out that they have nothing to do with each other and that smallpox is not a problem at the moment.