Lebanon reports first case of monkeypox

The patient is in a stable condition and self-isolating at home

A man's hands are covered in a rash caused by the monkeypox virus that swept through the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1996 to 1997. Reuters

An image taken during an outbreak of monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1996 and 1997 shows the arms and torso of a patient with skin lesions due to monkeypox. Reuters

This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention shows a monkeypox virion, obtained from a sample associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. AP

Images issued by the UK Health Security Agency show the stages of monkeypox. UK Health Security Agency

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health confirmed a single case of monkeypox in an adult male who had recently travelled to Canada. EPA

Roman Woelfel, head of the Institute of Microbiology of the German Armed Forces in Munich, gets to work after Germany detected its first case of monkeypox. Reuters

Lebanon has recorded its first case of monkeypox, its Health Ministry has announced.

It said the condition of the patient, who had returned from abroad and was self-isolating, was stable.

People were asked to keep a safe distance from those who had been infected.

Typical symptoms of monkeypox include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a rash of chickenpox-like blisters.

Until recently, monkeypox cases were typically confined to countries in Central and West Africa, where the disease is endemic.

But now more than 2,100 cases have been reported in countries, particularly in Europe, where monkeypox is not normally found. In the Middle East, cases have been confirmed in the UAE and Israel.

Monkeypox spreads through close contact and was first found in monkeys.

The head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has described the continued spread of monkeypox as “unusual and concerning”.