Finland’s largest hospital district, HUS, announced on Friday that it had confirmed the country’s first case of monkeypox late Thursday.
Lasse LehtonenAccording to HUS’s Director of Diagnostics, the case was so far the only case suspected in Finland.
Currently, a patient recovering at home has blisters and a high fever, but otherwise he is well, according to HUS.
"We know the source of the infection and have traced close contacts," Lehtonen explained a patient who had traveled within Europe.
The top doctor at HUS stressed that the virus is not very contagious.
"There is a very small risk that the disease will start spreading in Finland." he said.
The monkey poxvirus is one of the human orthopoxic viruses, including variola, vaccinia and vaccinia viruses. People who have received smallpox vaccines may have some immunity to monkeypox. However, Finland stopped vaccinating the population against smallpox in the 1970s because it had been eradicated.
Source: The Nordic Page