Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne has instructed the Ministry of Health to acquire vaccines for the monkeypox disease that has already infected thousands of people worldwide.
“We have to prepare for its eventual arrival here. We have asked the health minister, the medical director, and the Chief Medical Officer at the Sir Lester Bird Medical Center to do all that is necessary to acquire the vaccines as well as the anti-retroviral so that we can mitigate infections and at the same time lessen the severity of the disease,” Browne said on the radio over the weekend.
More than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported across more than 70 countries so far this year.
Monkeypox is a disease caused by the monkeypox virus which is similar to the smallpox virus. Persons typically experience a fever, a rash, swollen lymph nodes, and muscle pain.
