Staff Reporter :
A Turkiye citizen was admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in the city’s Mohakhali suspecting to have been attacked with monkeypox symptoms during passenger screening at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) on Tuesday.
The man landed at the airport by a Turkiye Airlines flight at 12:30pm, carrying a total of 216 passengers, including two infants, airport sources said.
Airport officials immediately sent the 32-year-old Turkiye citizen named Aksi Alte to the Infectious Diseases Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a statement on Tuesday said that there are no patients infected with monkeypox virus in the country and even none was admitted to the Mohakhali’s Infectious Diseases Hospital.
A number of online, social and electronic media outlets, have been reporting on the existence of monkeypox in the body of a foreign national, which is incorrect, Senior Information officer of the Health Ministry said the statement.
Director of Infectious Diseases Hospital Dr Mizanur Rahman told reporters that a Turkiye citizen was admitted to his hospital (Mohakhali Infectious Diseases Hospital) around 3 pm on suspicion of contracting monkeypox.
“The IEDCR (Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research) has collected samples from the person. We put him in a 10 bedded isolation ward to be confirmed whether the person is actually infected with monkeypox after getting the PCR test report,” he said.
Dr Mizanur Rahman said that Mohakhali Infectious Diseases Hospital has been dedicated to treat the Monkeypox patient.
Earlier, the airport health officials sent the Turkiye citizen suspecting him infected with monkeypox following thermal imaging to the Infectious Diseases Hospital.
However, the Turkiye Airlines claimed that the passenger’s signs were initially identified as “ringworm” .
Symptoms of ringworm have been found in the passenger’s knees, wrists, fingers and scalp, the airlines official observed.
The airline authorities have urged everyone to refrain from spreading unnecessary panic as the monkeypox’s symptoms do not match the passenger’s symptoms.
Monkeypox is a rare disease that is related to smallpox of less severity, causing a rash that spreads, fever, chills, and aches, among other symptoms.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 900 cases of monkeypox in 29 countries have now been recorded, 25 of which have been confirmed in the US.
