The fifth case of monkeypox in Australia has been identified.
On Friday afternoon, Victorian health officials said the state’s second case had been discovered in a man in his 30s who had recently returned to Melbourne from Europe.
He’s been isolating himself at home and is having modest symptoms. Close friends and family will be advised to keep an eye on the symptoms.
It comes following the discovery of a third person infected with the potentially fatal disease in Sydney.
Now, contact tracers are frantically attempting to identify the source of the virus in five distinct instances with no known connections.
The most recent instance in Sydney is a guy in his fifties who recently returned to the NSW capital, but NSW Health did not say where he came from.
It comes on the heels of a monkeypox case in a Sydney man in his 40s who had returned from Queensland the day before, and the first sick Sydney man who had traveled to Europe.
There is no known link between any of the patients, including the initial instance in Melbourne, which was also detected two weeks ago.
Despite the virus having never been detected locally before last month, NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant congratulated clinicians for spotting the signs.
‘Monkeypox does not present a transmission risk to the general community, and has until recently not been an infection most clinicians in NSW would have been looking for or concerned about in their patients,’ she said.
‘However, a local GP has once again identified the signs of this virus, and we thank them, and their colleagues, for staying up to date with the latest clinical information to provide care to their patients.’
The disease, which can kill up to one in ten people, was discovered when the man felt ill many days after getting home, and it was confirmed by urgent testing.
‘The man is currently being cared for in hospital,’ said NSW Health on Thursday. ‘He lives alone and investigations to date have identified no high-risk contacts in NSW.
‘Several people who had other lower level contact with the case are being contacted to advise to monitor for symptoms.’