Spain and Portugal report cases of monkeypox, raising concerns about more widespread outbreaks

TTwo more European countries reported anomalies Monkeypox Wednesday’s incident, Outbreak The first discoveries in Britain were more extensive than initially believed.

In news of incidents in other countries, senior officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned that incidents are likely to be found in the United States.

“I’m worried that an incident could occur in the United States. Jennifer McQuiston, Deputy Director of the CDC’s High Impact Pathogens Division, said: Pathology.

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“Given the confirmed cases from Portugal and the suspicious cases from Spain, there is a worldwide expansion of this confirmed and suspicious case. It is possible, and the United States. Given the amount of travel between Spain and Europe, I am confident that we will see cases in the United States, “McKistton told STAT in an interview.

Spain has announced that it is investigating eight suspicious cases, Portugal 20 suspicious cases, Five of them have already been confirmed. Currently, it is not clear whether outbreaks are interrelated or are occurring in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, nine confirmed cases and one possible case have been reported.

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If they are connected, it is not yet clear whether the virus will spread from the UK to Europe and vice versa. We also don’t know how long the virus has spread in these countries.

Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota Infectious Diseases Research Policy Center, said some cases have been detected in men who have sexual intercourse with men and may be more widespread than currently detected. Stated.

“Here, there may be dynamic transmissions that we didn’t rate due to the number of potential contacts,” he said.

Tom Inglesby, director of the Health and Security Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said many countries other than Central and West Africa, where monkeypox is more common, have dealt with the introduction of the virus. rice field. Occurrence may be “relatively small”.

“Given the past, I think it’s still likely,” Ingressby told STAT. “But on the other hand, this is a much more decentralized way, starting with far more footholds and I don’t understand how they were integrated into those networks.”

“This can move around and will require fairly strong public education efforts to make people aware of the potential for monkeypox infection in the affected communities, and perhaps more broadly.” He said.

UK Health and Security Agency Announced on Wednesday Two more cases were detected, bringing the number reported this month to nine. Prior to this outbreak, the United Kingdom had detected only seven cases of monkeypox so far. The two recent cases have not been transmitted to countries where the monkeypox virus is endemic and have no known association with any of the previous cases, so “may have been acquired through community infection.” Officials said in a statement. Recent cases occur primarily among men who are gay, bisexual, or have sex with men.

The same dynamics seem to work in at least some of the European cases. The Spanish Ministry of Health reported that the Madrid Sexual Health Clinic detected eight suspicious cases. News report..

Portuguese officials did not reveal how the incident was detected, but said they were all men and most were young.

The rapid accumulation of cases is ringing the alarm bell.

CDC on Tuesday Informed me that I was worried About the outbreak in the UK and the possibility of finding cases in other countries.

“There is a level of concern that this is very different from what we normally think of monkeypox,” said McQuiston.

“For example, if there is an undefined chain of transmission, we don’t know how many other cases may exist in the UK. We have never been associated with monkeypox, intimate. I feel that there may be some unusual ways of communicating through contact or some form of close personal contact, and there are many trips between the United Kingdom and the United States, and other parts of the world. I think there is, “she said in an interview.

The World Health Organization has also expressed concern, saying that it is necessary to investigate the epidemiological changes in the disease in countries where the recent virus is endemic.

“There is a change in the age distribution of cases. There is a change in the geographical distribution of cases,” said Michael Ryan, Executive Director of WHO’s Medical Emergency Program.

“We really need to understand that deep ecology. We really need to understand human behavior in those areas and we have to try to prevent the disease from reaching humans in the first place. Hmm.”

Monkeypox virus is associated with the smallpox virus that caused smallpox. Smallpox was once a horrific disease that was declared eradicated in 1980. Symptoms of monkeypox are similar to smallpox, but mild.

Infected people develop flu-like symptoms such as fever, body aches, and chills, but they also develop swollen lymph nodes. After a fever of 1 to 3 days, a characteristic rash appears, often starting on the face. Many symptoms can cause a rash, but the monkeypox rash has some unusual characteristics. In particular, vesicles can form on the palm of the hand.

In endemic countries, the virus is thought to spread primarily to people from infected animals when people prepare to kill or consume bushmeat.

When the virus infects a person, it can be transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets (saliva containing the virus that can infect the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, and throat) or by contact with saliva lesions or body fluids. Infection may occur. The virus invades through a small cut on the skin.You can also make a contract by contacting with Clothing or linen Contaminated with substances from monkeypox lesions.

Cases outside Africa were rare, Outbreak In the United States in 2003, there were 47 possible confirmed cases in 6 states. The first reported outbreak from outside Africa dates back to the import of small mammals from Ghana.

However, in the last few years, the number of cases of monkeypox exported has increased slightly.United States detected Two in 2021, Both travelers returning from Nigeria.Britain saw Multiple imports Over the past few years, Israel and Singapore have also detected cases.

Mr. McKistton said the number of cases exported, especially from Nigeria, seems to be in conflict with the number of cases reported in Nigeria itself.

“I think we are worried about the number of exported cases of travelers we have seen. And having many of them in the last few years is probably happening in Nigeria. It’s just a flag to us that there are far more monkeypox transmissions than monkeypox infections. [official] The numbers will suggest, “she said.

“And it may seem that the more traditional channels we think of are not the driving force, such as wildlife hunting, wildlife meat contact, and living on that boundary between the jungle and small communities. I think it’s our flag. Communication from the perspective of what we’re doing. So we can throw a wider net about what the risk factors will be. “