Israel’s Health Ministry announced on Sunday morning that it is investigating a second case of suspected monkeypox in the country.
The patient, like the first monkeypox patient confirmed on Motzei Shabbos, recently returned from western Europe.
The 27-year-old man is hospitalized in a quarantine ward at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. He is only mildly ill. Later on Sunday it was confirmed that the patient was not suffering from monkeypox.
Health officials say that although Israel will likely see dozens of additional monkeypox cases, the virus does not pose a danger to the general public as it is generally a mild disease and is not transmitted through the air. Many of the cases are being reported in young men who identify with the LGBTQ community.
Additionally, a large part of the Israeli adult population may have some protection against monkeypox as all IDF soldiers until 1996 received smallpox vaccinations, which also partially protect against monkeypox.
Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash said that Israelis shouldn’t become overly concerned about monkeypox. “It’s very important to me to calm people down, this isn’t COVID 2,” he said in an interview with Radio 103FM on Sunday.
“There were outbreaks of this in the past, before coronavirus. Smallpox, a disease that has been eradicated, is related to monkeypox, which is why the vaccine against smallpox also protects against monkeypox. But this is not a serious illness that the entire population needs to be vaccinated against.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
I guess they’re going to add an M to that alphabet soup of letters, M for monkeys.
But the Dems will push it like it is!
YWN should not use the term ‘LGBTQ community’ which legitimizes these people as a group in society. They are not a community. They are arvayonim – people who go against what Hashem wants. They do not deserve to be called a community on a frum website. Would you speak about the ‘Mechalalei Shabbos community’ or the ‘Oichlei Treifos community’?