The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed this Saturday that it has information on more than 80 cases of monkeypox around the world and announced the start of a working protocol with the affected countries, more than a dozen according to estimates by the UN agency , if It is about “improving his understanding of the extent and causes of the disease”.
The agency is also aware of fifty other cases pending confirmation of a virus it describes as “endemic in the animal populations of several countries.”
However, he concedes that the outbreaks detected in 11 countries – 12 including Switzerland, which confirmed its first case this Saturday – represent an “atypical” circumstance for occurring in “non-endemic” locations.
“Monkeypox spreads differently than the coronavirus, always with close contact,” explains the organization.
“People who have had a close interaction with a person affected are at a higher risk of infection. This population includes healthcare workers, family members, or sexual partners.
More cases in Spain
One of the most affected countries is Spain. On the same day, the Autonomous Community of Madrid confirmed 30 cases and the existence of another 39 suspects. Possible infections are being investigated in six other Spanish regions. In Madrid, the prosecution carried out by public health revealed that most of the confirmed cases are linked to a sauna that was closed this Friday afternoon.
The document recalls that this is the first time chains of transmission have been reported in Europe with no known epidemiological links to West or Central Africa, and that the majority of cases detected today in Spain and other countries have been in men, who have done so have had risky relationships with other men.
Israel also submitted its first case, a 30-year-old man who recently returned from Europe. If the symptoms were mild, the patient stated that he had been in contact with a sick person abroad.
Monkeypox is a contagious disease transmitted through large respiratory droplets through direct and prolonged direct face-to-face contact, direct contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids or with contaminated objects, and even from mother to child. Symptoms include fever, chills, and swollen lymph nodes, but what complicates the disease most are the skin lesions it causes on the face and hands.