The region has recorded 22 cases of this disease since the first infected was detected in June
New monkeypox infections in the region. Extremadura has detected two more cases since last Tuesday and there are already 22 people infected since the declaration of the first case in June, as reported this Friday José María Vergeles, second vice president and minister of Health and Social services. Among the patients concerned, one had to be admitted to hospital because of his state of health, even if the adviser insisted that he did not present “serious criteria”.
Vergeles has repeatedly asked that those with symptoms related to this disease go to health centers, as this is the way to control it and prevent epidemics from occurring. In this sense, this Friday the counselor also stressed that “whether it is serious or not” the case, “the stigma cannot and must not silence this disease”, since it “must be treated well”.
These 22 cases have been identified in two months, since Extremadura registered its
first case of monkeypox on June 10. This represents a cumulative incidence per million inhabitants of 20. According to the report published this Friday by the Ministry of Health, the community of Extremadura is one of the regions with the lowest incidence.
Last week, the Minister of Health said the most common symptoms of people with monkeypox in the area are skin lesions and general malaise.
public health emergency
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Saturday July 23 that monkeypox is a
public health emergency of “concern” internationally, the maximum level of alert that the entity can establish on a disease. So far, only covid-19 has achieved this risk designation.
This step implies that the WHO recommendations, in theory, are binding on the countries that make up the organization. Moreover, it means that they have to be more strict with each of the epidemics that arise, despite the fact that they were strict before.
On the other hand, the WHO asked people infected with monkeypox and their contacts
don’t travel.
Remember that Spain is the European country with the most cases of monkeypox detected, 4,942 according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health made public on Friday. Of these patients, a total of 4,863 are male and 79 are female. The age of those infected ranges from 10 months to 88 years. So far, two deaths from this disease have been reported in Spain,
one in the Valencian Community there
another in Cordoba.
3,943 of the 4,942 patients for whom information was available were men who have sex with men. Information is available on the most likely mechanism of transmission in 2,287 cases, 80.6% being through close contact during sexual intercourse and 9.1% through close non-sexual contact.
Regarding attendance at mass events, of the 3,152 cases with information on this variable, 646 attended an event on dates before symptom onset.
A total of 11,536 confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported in the rest of Europe, Germany (2,839), UK (2,672), France (2,239), Netherlands (957 ) and Portugal (633) being the most affected countries. .. after Spain. Most are young men with a history of relationships in a sexually risky context.
In the rest of the world, a total of 10,619 confirmed cases have been reported in non-endemic countries, the United States (7,102), Brazil (1,721), Canada (890), Peru (340) and Israel (160) being the most affected countries.
Cases outside areas where the disease is endemic
Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease with the first human cases identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970. Endemic to some West and Central African countries, all cases identified outside of these areas by 2022 were imported or linked to an imported case or imported animals. endemic areas.
However, in May this year, the UK reported the identification of several cases with no history of recent travel to endemic areas or contact with previously reported cases. Since then, many countries, mainly in Europe and the Americas, have reported confirmed or experimental cases with no epidemiological link to endemic areas in West or Central Africa, marking the first time that chains of transmission of the Monkeypox have been reported in Europe and other non-European endemic areas.