NewsDesk @bactiman63

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has received information that a foreign person who visited Oslo from 6 to 10 May has since had monkey pox confirmed in his home country.

Norway/CIA

The infected person is a traveling person from a European country where there is an outbreak of monkey pox. 

Oslo Municipality is now working with the National Institute of Public Health to map who may have been exposed to infection, in order to provide information to those concerned. The National Institute of Public Health is also in contact with the health service in the person’s home country to further map where the person has been during their stay in Oslo. 

Any close contacts of the infected person will be contacted and asked to be observant of symptoms of monkey pox. The most common symptoms are fever and general malaise followed by rash and swelling of the lymph nodes.  

Infection with monkey pox most often occurs through direct contact infection, but indirect contact infection (via bedding and the like) and droplet infection can occur. In order for droplet infection to occur, close close contact over a longer period of time (hours) is usually required. 

It is not unexpected that people infected with monkey pox have been to Norway, and the health service must be prepared for that, says Preben Aavitsland, chief physician at the National Institute of Public Health.  

The National Institute of Public Health has made routines and recommendations for how the health service should handle people who may be infected.  

– We now assist Oslo Municipality in informing those with whom the traveler had close contact during the stay. It is too early to assess the risk of any of them being infected. The risk of infection to the general population is considered very low, says Aavitsland.