Another day, another monkey pox bulletin. Invariably these bulletins are publicised with offputting photographs of victims in Africa. Here, the 209 victims (at last count) remain largely confined to the Lisbon/ Vale do Tejo health district – although there are some in the north and even the Algarve. They remain stable, ‘accompanied by health authorities’ – and not one appears to be so ill as to require hospitalisation. The bulletins are essentially copy/ pasted every day with numbers growing (by 10-20 max per bulletin). As DGS health chief Graça Freitas has stressed, Portugal has the necessary vaccines. For the time being, monkey pox remains confined to men, generally under the age of 40, and described as “men who have sex with men”. Perhaps the only ‘novelty’ in today’s bulletin is that victims with ‘skin lesions’ who seek medical attention are asked to do so with their lesions ‘covered’.
