Argentina quarantines crew of cargo ship over suspected mpox outbreak

Health authorities in Argentina have placed the crew of a cargo ship in the Parana River under quarantine after it reported one of them as having symptoms of possible mpox infection.

The Argentine Naval League, the country’s health ministry and industry agency, identified the ship as a Liberian-flagged vessel coming from Santos, Brazil and was to load soy at the San Lorenzo port in the Santa Fe province, Reuters reports.

The ship’s report says that an Indian seafarer aboard had “cyst-like skin lesions on the chest and face and was isolated, the ministry said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

The vessel was ordered to anchor while its entire crew was placed under quarantine for medical testing.

The World Health Organization last week declared mpox as a global health emergency after a new variant of the virus that seems to spread rapidly was detected in Africa.

Mpox causes pus-filled skin lesions and flu-like symptoms.

Ivory Coast health authorities on Tuesday reported 28 cases of mpox, with one person dying from the virus that has killed hundreds in Democratic Republic of Congo.

The total has risen from six declared cases on 1 August.

The National Public Hygiene Institute recorded “28 confirmed cases including one death” across the country as of Tuesday, said an INHP doctor Daouda Coulibaly.

The fatal case and some others were recorded in the country’s economic capital Abidjan, the INHP said. Coulibaly said tests were being carried out to identify the strain of the latest mpox cases.

“The situation is no cause for alarm,” Coulibaly said. “We are seeing just the start of a nascent epidemic — there is no upsurge” in cases.