LISTEN: Anyone susceptible to monkeypox - NICD
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases says anyone is susceptible to monkeypox.
"There is no evidence to suggest that there is different physical or biological susceptibility to the monkeypox virus,” says the NICD's Dr. Jacqueline Weyer.
"We are one species, our biology works the same way, so there is no selection in terms of the group that's being infected."
The Health Minister earlier confirmed the country's first case - a 30-year-old man in Gauteng.
On Thursday afternoon, the institute was responding to reports that cases worldwide are mostly cases that involve gay or bisexual men.
Weyer says it's possibly just a coincidence at this stage.
"So we are seeing this outbreak in this way perhaps because of behavioral factors, so certainly we see from the data from the rest of the world that almost 99% of the cases have been men having sex with men."
Listen to Dr. Jacqueline Weyer below:
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