Italian monkeypox cases up 45 to 644

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 12 - Italian monkeypox cases have risen by 45 to 644 since the last count on Tuesday August 9, the health ministry said in its latest update Friday.
    Cass linked to foreign trips are now up to 182, it said.
    Male predominance remains strong with 634 men infected and just 10 women.
    The regions with the highest infection tallies remain Lombardy (282), Lazio (118), Emilia Romagna (65), and Veneto (44).
    Italy has started monkeypox vaccinations with the first jabs being given at Rome's Spallanzani Hospital Monday followed by others in Bologna and the rest of Emilia-Romagna starting Tuesday.
    The other two priority regions, Lombardy and Veneto, began giving out doses of the vaccine later this week.
    On July 23 the World Health Organization said monkeypox was a "global health emergency".
    The vaccination campaign is not a mass effort like the COVID one but is instead directed at persons at greatest risk of infection such as gays, transgender, bisexuals and other men who have sex with men, as well as lab staff with possible exposure to the orthopoxvirus.
    The Spallanzani is Italy's premier infectious disease hospital and treated the first COVID-19 patients in early 2020. (ANSA).