Italian monkeypox cases rose to five
Tuesday as another case was found at the Spallanzani Hospital in
Rome, Italy's premier infectious-disease institute.
The hospital said the new case had "clinical and transmission
characteristics similar to the previous ones".
The number of Italian monkeypox cases rose to four Monday after
the South-East Tuscany health authority said a 32-year-old man
who returned to Arezzo on May 15 from a holiday in the Canary
Islands had the disease.
The news came amid reports that the virus has been sequenced for
the first time, in Portugal.
The Arezzo man is being treated at Arezzo's San Donato hospital.
It is the first case in Tuscany.
Four other men are being treated at the Spallanzani, in Rome.
And 15 men who had been in contact with them are now
self-isolating, across the Lazio region surrounding Rome, the
hospital said.
The first Italian case of monkey smallpox, or monkeypox, also
regarded a man who had recently returned from a stay in the
Canary Islands.
Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a
pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for
research, hence the name 'monkeypox.'
The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Since then monkeypox had mainly been reported in humans in other
central and western African countries.
The World Health Organization said it was monitoring the
"quickly evolving situation" after recent reported cases in
Britain, Spain and the United States, as well as Italy, sources
said Monday.
The WHO has now confirmed over a hundred cases with outbreaks in
at least 12 countries.
Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pains, swollen lymph
nodes, and a rash that forms blisters and crusts over. Monkeypox
can be contracted from close contact with an infected person,
sexual relations, contaminated objects, handling bushmeat and an
animal bite or scratch.
Many of those who have contracted it are gay men but the United
Nations AIDS body, UNAIDS, has condemned what it called
"stigmatizing language" similar to that which circulated during
the first stage of the AIDS epidemic, describing it as "the gay
plague".
Monkeypox is not classified as a sexually transmitted disease
but it can be contracted via the exchange of bodily fluids,
whether through close physical contact or through sexual
relations.
It is not an airborne virus and its several strains are very far
from being as contagious as COVID-19 and its latest much faster
spreading sub-variants.
Also on Monday, Portuguese infectious disease Doutor Ricardo
Jorge, of INSA in Lisbon, said his team had sequenced the latest
strain of the monkeypox virus for the first time.
He said it was similar to several cases detected in 2018-2019.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
said "most of the cases of monkeypox in Europe have presented
with slight symptoms and, for the broader population, the
probability of spread is very low".
It said 85 cases had been detected in eight EU countries:
Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
and Sweden.
European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the EU's
health security committee would discuss the situation Tuesday.
She added: "Our response and health emergency preparation
authorities, HERA, ECDC and EMA are working in close contact to
ensure that information on the epidemiological situation and the
availability of vaccines and treatments is accurate and
thorough".
Milan Bicocca University virologist Francesco Broccolo said the
strain that has been found in Europe is "the least aggressive
strain of the virus" and stressed that it was now important to
establish the causes of its spread.
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