The World Health Organization confirmed, on Saturday, that it has information on more than 80 cases of monkeypox around the world, and announced the start of a work protocol with countries affected by more than a dozen cases, according to the estimates of the UN agency. When it comes to improving their “understanding of the extent and causes of disease.”
The agency also learned of an additional fifty cases awaiting confirmation of the presence of a virus that it describes as “endemic in animal populations in many countries.”
However, he acknowledges that the outbreaks found in 11 countries – 12 including Switzerland, which confirmed its first case this Saturday – constitute an “atypical” circumstance that they occur in “non-endemic” places.
“Monkeypox spreads differently from the coronavirus, and it is almost always in close contact,” the organization explains.
People who have close interactions with an infected person are more likely to develop an infection. This category includes health workers, family members or sexual partners.
More cases in Spain
Spain is one of the most affected countries. On the same day, the Community of Madrid confirmed 30 cases and 39 more suspects. In six other Spanish regions, potential infections are being investigated. In Madrid, tracking by Public Health has determined that most of the confirmed cases are linked to the sauna, which was closed on Friday afternoon.
The document notes that this is the first time that transmission chains have been reported in Europe without known epidemiological links to West or Central Africa, and that the majority of cases detected these days in Spain and other countries occurred in men who contracted them. She maintained risky relationships with other men.
Israel also provided the first case of a 30-year-old man who had recently returned from Europe. With mild symptoms, the patient reported contact with a sick person abroad.
Monkeypox is an infectious disease that is spread between people by large respiratory droplets during direct and prolonged face-to-face contact, direct contact with body fluids of an infected person or contaminated objects, and even from mother to child. Symptoms are fever, chills, and swollen lymph nodes, but the disease is most complicated by the skin lesions it produces on the face and hands.
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