No suspected cases confirmed as monkeypox – Georgia’s National Centre for Disease Control

None of the seven suspected cases of monkeypox were confirmed as the virus, the Georgia’s National Centre for Disease Control said on Tuesday.  

The agency stated that the country has confirmed a single case of the virus in mid-June so far. 

The patient had a mild form of the virus and was discharged from hospital a week ago. 

He contracted the virus while traveling in Europe.

Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms very similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe. 

It is caused by the monkeypox virus which belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus of the Poxviridae family. 

The first human case was identified in a young child in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970.

Monkeypox virus is transmitted from one person to another by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding. The incubation period of monkeypox is usually from 6 to 13 days but can range from 5 to 21 days, said the World Health Organization.