PULSE NEWS MEXICO

A 48-year-old tourist from Dallas, Texas, who was visiting the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, was confirmed on Tuesday, June 7, to have contracted monkeypox.

The man, who presented at a Puerto Vallarta hospital with pustule-like lesions on May 30, allegedly fled the hospital early Friday, June 3, after doctors informed him that he could have monkeypox.

His physicians, who had suspected that he might be a carrier of the disease, had sent his lab tests to the General Directorate of Epidemiology for Jalisco for confirmation.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the man flew back to the United States on Saturday, June 4, and is currently being treated there.

Notwithstanding, since the man attended several large events and social gathering during his stay in Puerto Vallarta, the Jalisco Secretariat of Health has called on residents of the city who may have had close contact with him to be on the lookout for possible symptoms of monkeypox, and, in the event that they may be infected, seek medical attention.

Monkeypox is mostly spread by direct skin-to-skin contact, usually among gay and bisexulal men. It is not spread by air, water or food. Consequently, contagion is low.

Monkeypox has an incubation period of one to two weeks, though it can take up to 21 days for symptoms to develop in people who have contracted the virus.

People with monkeypox typically begin to notice a fever, a rash and lesions with other symptoms similar to the flu.

According to the CDC, monkeypox was first discovered in 1958, in African monkey colonies.

The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Since then, the virus has been diagnosed in humans in central and various western African countries.

In recent weeks, outbreaks of the disease have been reported around the globe.