Dive/SC (Santa Catarina Office of Epidemiological Surveillance) has released a document with recommendations on monkeypox for healthcare settings. A report published last Thursday (28) mentions departments that provide care for STIs (sexually transmitted infections).

Dive advises clinics and specialists on monkeypox detection – Photo: Dive/SC/Disclosure/ND

The document warns medical workers working in medical institutions providing care for STIs. Dive asks these specialists to keep abreast of suspicious cases, given the unusual manifestations of the disease.

Patients may seek medical attention if they suspect an STI. The possibility that this is a suspected case of monkeypox will then be investigated.

Suspicious cases identified by the health services must be reported immediately, within 24 hours, to the health surveillance services responsible for the point of care.

forms of infection

• Direct contact with skin rashes, sores, or crusts from lesions;
• Contact with objects, fabrics (clothes, bed linen or towels) and surfaces used by the infected person;
• Through respiratory droplets or oral fluids from an infected person. Such contact can occur during intimate sexual contact, including: oral, anal and vaginal sex or touching the genitals or anus of a person infected with monkeypox;
• hugging, massaging, kissing, or talking near an infected person;
• Touching tissues and objects during sex that an infected person uses, such as bedding, towels, and sex toys.

The virus can be spread in the fluids or secretions from wounds of infected people, and the possibility of the virus being present in other body fluids, such as semen and vaginal secretions, is still under investigation.

Illness is nothing new in the world. The virus that causes monkeypox was first discovered in 1958, when two outbreaks of smallpox occurred in monkey colonies held for research. The first case of human disease was reported in 1970 on the African continent.

According to the official website of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), prior to the 2022 outbreak, monkeypox was reported in humans in several countries in Central and West Africa. Previously, almost all cases of smallpox in humans outside of Africa were associated with international travel to countries where the disease commonly occurs, or with imported animals. These cases have occurred on several continents.