Mon­key­pox has been added to the list of dan­ger­ous in­fec­tious dis­eases in ac­cor­dance with Sec­tion 103 of the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance. The Cab­i­net has al­so ap­proved the mak­ing of an Or­der by the Quar­an­tine Au­thor­i­ty to al­low spe­cial mea­sures to be tak­en in light of the emer­gency of the spread of the Mon­key­pox Virus.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­istry of Health: 

The Cab­i­net of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go has ap­proved with im­me­di­ate ef­fect the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Ho­n­ourable Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, Min­is­ter of Health, to pro­claim the Mon­key­pox Virus a dan­ger­ous in­fec­tious dis­ease, in ac­cor­dance with Sec­tion 103 of the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance, Chap. 12 No. 4.

The Cab­i­net has fur­ther ap­proved the mak­ing of an Or­der by the Quar­an­tine Au­thor­i­ty to al­low spe­cial mea­sures to be tak­en in light of the emer­gency of the spread of the Mon­key­pox Virus and in par­tic­u­lar, to al­low for sur­veil­lance of the crew and pas­sen­gers on board a ship of air­craft, for twen­ty-one (21) days from the last date of pos­si­ble ex­po­sure to in­fec­tion, in ac­cor­dance with Sec­tion 6 (1) of the Quar­an­tine Act, Chap­ter 28:05.

The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al is to pre­pare the nec­es­sary Or­ders to give ef­fect to the above.

Mon­key­pox is a vi­ral zoono­sis (a virus trans­mit­ted to hu­mans from an­i­mals or hu­man to hu­man) with symp­toms very sim­i­lar but usu­al­ly clin­i­cal­ly less se­vere than those seen in small­pox pa­tients.

The pub­lic is fur­ther ad­vised that the main symp­toms of Mon­key­pox are fever, rash, and swollen lymph nodes. The virus is trans­mit­ted to hu­mans through close con­tact with an in­fect­ed per­son or an­i­mal or con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed ma­te­r­i­al such as bed­ding. The virus may al­so be trans­ferred from one per­son to an­oth­er by close con­tact with le­sions, body flu­ids and res­pi­ra­to­ry droplets.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, if you or any­one close to you have had a re­cent trav­el his­to­ry from any coun­try where cas­es have been de­tect­ed and are symp­to­matic, as de­scribed above, please vis­it your near­est health care provider. For a full list of these coun­tries, please vis­it the WHO web­site at www.who.int/emer­gen­cies/emer­gency-events/item/mon­key­pox.

The pub­lic should note that no case(s) of the Mon­key­pox Virus have been con­firmed in Trinidad and To­ba­go at this time.

As more in­for­ma­tion be­comes avail­able, the Min­istry of Health will keep the pub­lic abreast of any new de­vel­op­ments re­gard­ing this emerg­ing pub­lic health threat via the MoH web­site at www.health.gov.tt and so­cial me­dia chan­nels.