More than 200 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed outside Africa. They are mainly concentrated in the UK, Spain, and Portugal.
Nineteen countries are affected, and the disease is endemic in eleven African countries.
According to EU health authorities, more than 200 cases of monkeypox have now been confirmed outside Africa. Nineteen countries where the disease is not commonly found have secured at least one point.
“Most of the cases are young men who self-identify as having sex with men. There have been no deaths,” the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said Wednesday night.
Outside the 11 African countries where this rare disease is endemic, most cases are concentrated in three countries: the United Kingdom (71 points), Spain (51), and Portugal (37). In Europe, 191 patients were confirmed, plus 15 in Canada, nine in the United States, two in Australia, and one in Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Suspected cases were not counted in the tally.
On Monday, the ECDC’s initial risk assessment had rated the likelihood of infection in the general population as “very low” but “high” among people with multiple sexual partners. The World Health Organization (WHO) had expressed optimism that it would be able to stop the spread of the disease.
Monkeypox is a less dangerous relative of smallpox, eradicated for about 40 years. The disease begins with a high fever and quickly develops into a rash with crusting.
- hp with reports from APA and orf.at/picture: pixabay.com
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