Tips to Avoid Catching Monkey Pox

Monkey Pox – it was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research. Then the first human case of monkey pox was detected in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And it’s in the human population again, most recently detected in Mexico. But the World Health Organization does not believe that the outbreak of monkey pox outside of Africa will lead to a pandemic. Nevertheless, Internist, Doctor Jorge Hidalgo advises on how we should avoid catching the virus.

Dr Jorge Hidalgo

Dr Jorge Hidalgo, Internist/Intensivist

“We need to make sure that we take our different precautions. One of the most important one is we need to keep our hands hygiene, washing our hands with water and soap or using one of the alcohol (sanitizers) that we have to clean our hands. That’s probably one of the most important ones – the hygiene, and using our masks right now, especially if we are going to be in a crowded area, that is critical, and that will help us not only with the monkey pox but also, it’s going to help us to avoid contracting COVID-19, that, you know, we also have rise in cases in the country. It’s not as highly transmissible like COVID but of course, we need to have our precautions, mainly hygiene, respiratory precautions. That I think are going to be key.”