Awoman has tested positive for monkeypox (Mpox) in St Catherine, Jamaica.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness made the disclosure in its monkeypox update on Tuesday, relative to up to Sunday, March 19.

The latest positive case, which is the first since January, brings the island's total number of confirmed cases to 19.

The ministry has classified the latest case as a local transmission.

However, there is now only one active case locally.

Since Jamaica recorded its first Mpox case in July last year, 17 persons have recovered from the virus.

One patient died, but that death has since been classified as having been coincidental.

Mpox is a rare disease resulting from infection by the monkey pox virus. The Mpox virus is a zoonotic disease and is part of the family of variola viruses, which cause smallpox.

The Mpox symptoms are similar to those characteristic of smallpox, but milder.

Mpox has been deemed as rarely producing fatality.

In November 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) renamed monkeypox to Mpox, citing that the disease's original name plays into "racist and stigmatising language".

The signs and symptoms associated with the disease include fever, chills, intense headache, extreme exhaustion, muscle and backaches, swollen lymph nodes, and a rash that usually appears one to three days after the onset of the fever.