Rabat – Morocco’s Directorate of Epidemiology and Disease Control has put in place a national strategy to fight and contain any potential monkeypox outbreak in the country.
The directorate stressed that all suspected cases following lab tests should be reported immediately to local health authorities, who would then report it to regional authorities, allowing them to investigate the case.
A suspected case refers to a patient showing signs of rashes, body temperatures around 38 degrees Celsius, with the caveat that other more common causes of these symptoms, such as allergies or other diseases, must be excluded.
The directorate has also advised to quarantine anyone who comes in contact with an infected patient, or anyone who has come in contact with their personal belongings, to prevent exponential spread.
People who have been in close proximity to infected patients should also be quarantined, even when no symptoms are detected, the authorities said.
The quarantine should last for three weeks with daily temperature monitoring, after which local authorities would make sure symptoms are absent before giving the all-clear.
Morocco had announced three suspected cases earlier this week, all of which were confirmed to be negative on Wednesday.
The current monkeypox outbreak, which is a relatively rare disease commonly occuring in Central and West Africa, has been prominent in Europe and the USA, where cases have been detected in populations not connected to travel in Western or Central Africa.
Moroccan experts have called on the public to avoid panic, seeing as the disease has been known for decades and does not currently pose as much of a threat as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Classified as rare, monkeypox symptoms include fevers and rashes, but are usually mild and can be cured in a few days to a few weeks with minimal medical attention.
Some research shows that there is already medication and vaccinations that can be useful against it, or at the very least provide a headstart in dealing with the novel outbreak.
Some scientists are still calling for caution over suspicions that the new outbreak might be different than past ones.
