Monkeypox scare: Belgium becomes first country to introduce 21-day compulsory quarantine

Brussels: Belgium has become the first country to make the 21-day quarantine compulsory for the monkeypox patients after four cases of the disease have been reported last week. 

The Belgian health authorities took this decision on Friday, Saudi Gazette reported citing Belgian media. Monkeypox is a disease in the same family as smallpox and symptoms include a distinct bumpy rash, a fever, sore muscles and a headache. 

Monkeypox is less deadly than smallpox, with a mortality rate below 4 per cent, but experts are worried about the unusual spread of the disease beyond Africa where it usually circulates.

The Belgian Institute of Tropical Medicine has said that the risk of a larger outbreak in the country is low, according to Saudi Gazette citing Belgian daily Le Soir.

Taking to Twitter, the microbiologist Emmanuel Andre, who is in charge of the National Reference lab for COVID-19 in Belgium on Saturday, said that the fourth case has been confirmed in the country. 

"This patient is being treated in Wallonia and is linked to the Antwerp event in which two other people were infected," he tweeted referring to a festival in the port city held in May.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the World Health Organization reported that there were a total of 92 confirmed monkeypox cases in 12 different countries, with 28 suspected cases under investigation. 

Cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in the UK, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, the US, Canada and Australia, as reported by Saudi Gazette.

On May 7, a case of monkeypox has been confirmed in England, in a patient who recently travelled from Nigeria, as per the UK Health Security Agency.

On May 18, the US Massachusetts Department of Public Health confirmed a single case of monkeypox virus infection in an adult male with recent travel to Canada.