Belgium became the first country to introduce a mandatory 21-day quarantine for patients with monkeypox after reporting four cases in the past week.
Belgian health authorities made the decision on Friday, according to Belgian media. Cases of contact with monkeypox do not have to isolate themselves, but they must be vigilant, especially if they come into contact with vulnerable people.
Monkeypox is a disease of the same family as smallpox and symptoms include a pronounced uneven rash, fever, inflamed muscles and headache. Monkeypox is less deadly than smallpox, with a mortality rate of less than 4 percent, but experts are worried about the unusual spread of the disease outside Africa, where it usually circulates.
The Belgian Institute of Tropical Medicine said the risk of a larger outbreak in the country was low, according to the Belgian daily Le Soir.
On Saturday, microbiologist Emmanuel Andre, who is in charge of the National Reference Laboratory for COVID-19 in Belgium, tweeted that a fourth case of monkeypox had been confirmed in the country.
“This patient is being treated in Wallonia and is linked to the event in Antwerp, in which two other people were infected,” he wrote, referring to a festival in the port city in May.
On Saturday, the World Health Organization said there were 92 confirmed cases in 12 different countries, with 28 suspected cases under investigation. Cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, the United States, Canada and Australia.
In the United Kingdom, Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser to the UK’s Health Security Agency, told the BBC on Sunday that they were “finding more cases on a daily basis” of monkeypox. Education Minister Nadim Zahaui said the government was taking it “very, very seriously”.
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