Italian monkeypox cases are up 27 to
689 in the last three days, the health ministry said Friday.
Confirmed cases of the virus have risen by almost 30 since the
last report on August 16, it said.
Cases linked to trips abroad are now 190, up five, the ministry
said.
The average age of those infected is steady at 37.
The regions with the most cases are Lombardy with 297, up six;
and Lazio with 125, up four.
Emilia Romagna is up two to 72.
Italy recently started monkeypox vaccinations with the first
jabs being given at Rome's Spallanzani Hospital at the beginning
of last week followed by others in Bologna and the rest of
Emilia-Romagna.
The other two priority regions, Lombardy and Veneto, began
giving out doses of the vaccine later last 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.
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