Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Services continues screening and symptom monitoring of people arriving from a list of countries with evidence of community transmission of monkeypox.
This means people arriving in Fiji from those listed countries have been monitored for symptoms and followed up by health teams until 21 days after the arrival.
Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong said 3382 international arrivals had been followed up between May 20 and July 25, and comprised 2529 in the Western Division, 738 in the Central Division, 106 in the North and nine in the Eastern Division.
He said their health teams had so far conducted investigations for 13 people who demonstrated symptoms similar to those seen in monkeypox.
“To date, all cases under investigation have been cleared for monkeypox. Some tested positive for viruses that cause hand foot and mouth disease or chicken pox, which are diseases that also cause a rash similar to monkeypox,” Dr Fong said.
He added they were also waiting for testing supplies, and they were expected to soon begin testing for monkeypox at the Fiji Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
“Our ongoing efforts to develop genomic sequencing capability at Fiji CDC will also provide us with greater capacity to deal with infection threats now and in the future.
“We are developing activity plans to engage key community-based groups, and civil society networks to increase the provision of reliable and factual information about monkeypox to populations that may be at increased risk of infection.”
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom declared the monkeypox global outbreak a public health emergency of international concern last Saturday, July 25.
At the time of the announcement, there were more than 16,000 cases reported to WHO from 75 countries, with the most reported by countries in Europe, followed by the Americas.
It also noted that there had been five deaths, with all the deaths occurring in African countries previously endemic for monkeypox.
“As we have not detected a case, Fiji is classed in Group 1: States Parties, with no history of monkeypox in the human population or not having detected a case of monkeypox for over 21 days.”
