Lithuania has confirmed the country’s first case of the monkeypox virus, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
"About an hour ago, we received confirmation that the first case of monkeypox has been registered in Lithuania this year. The case is a male in his 40s, a citizen of Lithuania who came to Lithuania from another European country," said Galina Zagrebnevienė, a chief specialist at the Public Health Department of the Health Ministry, on Wednesday afternoon.
The patient's condition is stable and he should have been discharged home for treatment, she added.
Rasa Liausėdienė, adviser to the Infectious Disease Management Unit of the National Public Health Centre (NVSC), reported that five people had close contact with the infected person.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 18,000 monkeypox cases have been detected throughout the world outside Africa since the beginning of May, most of them in Europe.
The Health Ministry reported in July that Lithuania had ordered approximately 1,400 monkeypox vaccine doses.
The ministry then said that jabs would be administered to case contacts after a high-risk exposure and there would be no possibilities for preventive vaccination.
Vaccination against pox in Lithuania was stopped in approximately 1980.
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