Two cases of monkeypox have been reported in Israel over the weekend as scientists worldwide seek to contain the outbreak of the rare disease.

Israel’s Channel 12 TV said a 27-year-old man who is believed to have been a sailor on a cargo ship that docked in Ashdod is being treated in hospital in the city.

In the first reported a case, a man in his 30s is being treated in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Both patients are said to be in a good condition.

Symptoms of the disease, which is rarely fatal, include fever, headaches and most dramatically, a rash and blistering skin.

Around 120 cases have been confirmed worldwide, including 20 in the UK.

Scientists are puzzled by the outbreak of the disease, which is spread by close physical contact, in Europe and North America as it has previously been found only in people with links to West and Central Africa.

Nachman Ash, the director-general of Israel’s health ministry, reassured the public that this was “not another coronavirus”, the Times of Israel reported.

While vaccinations were being considered for those most at risk, there was no need for a nationwide inoculation, he said. “These kind of diseases break out every now and again,” he told Israeli talk station, Radio 103.