Mexican health authorities reported that an American man displaying symptoms of monkeypox escaped from a hospital in a tourist city where he was undergoing treatment and left the country. According to the French Press Agency, the Ministry of Health stated that the 48-year-old man from Texas fled the hospital in Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast of Mexico last weekend, despite being informed by medical staff of the need for a monkeypox test and to remain in isolation.
It added that when he was admitted to the hospital, he exhibited symptoms of "cough, chills, muscle aches, and a rash on his face and neck." After escaping, the infected individual went to the hotel where he was staying with another person and boarded a flight from Puerto Vallarta on June 4, before authorities were able to locate him. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to Mexican authorities on Monday that the patient had returned to the United States, where a test confirmed his monkeypox infection.
Prior to arriving at Puerto Vallarta on May 27, the man had visited Berlin and Dallas. During his stay in Mexico, he attended parties at a nightclub in the tourist city of Jalisco. Mexican health officials urged anyone who was at the nightclub between May 27 and June 4 to monitor their health. The World Health Organization stated on Wednesday that the risk of the monkeypox virus spreading outside countries where the disease is endemic is "real," with over a thousand cases already recorded.
