Authorities in six countries in Europe and North America have so far reported confirmed and suspected cases of monkeypox, raising fears that the disease is spreading.
Canada was the last country to indicate that it is studying eight cases, after Spain and Portugal detected more than 40 possible and verified infections.
Since May 6, Britain has confirmed nine infections, while the United States certified the first on Wednesday, that of a man from the state of Massachusetts who had tested positive for the virus after visiting Canada.
The infected person “is not seriously ill, but received medical care,” explained the authority, who said he did not know where and how the infection took place.
While in Italy a case was registered of a patient who had been on a trip to the Canary Islands of Spain.
The disease, from which most people recover within weeks and which has only been fatal in rare cases, has infected thousands of people in parts of central and western Africa in recent years, but is extremely rare in Europe. and North Africa.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Tuesday that it was working in coordination with British and European health authorities on the new outbreaks.
“We really need to better understand the extent of monkeypox in endemic countries … to really understand how much is circulating and the risk that it means for the people who live there, as well as the risk of export,” said the epidemiologist from infectious diseases Maria Van Kerkhove, at a WHO press conference on Tuesday.
The first case in Britain was identified in a person who had traveled to Nigeria, but subsequent cases were possibly through community transmission, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said in a statement.
“These latest cases, along with case reports from countries in Europe, confirm our initial concern that there could be a spread of monkeypox in our communities,” said Susan Hopkins, medical adviser to the government.
“We are seeing transmission between men who have sex with men,” WHO Deputy Director General Ibrahima Socé Fall told the news conference. “This is new information that we need to investigate properly to better understand the dynamics of local transmission in the UK and other countries.”
The British health security agency noted that monkeypox had not previously been characterized as a sexually transmitted disease and stressed that “it can be transmitted by direct contact during sexual intercourse.”
“Anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, can spread monkeypox through contact with bodily fluids, monkeypox sores, or shared objects (such as clothing and bedding) that have been contaminated with fluids or sores from a person. person with monkeypox,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement on Wednesday. The institution added that household disinfectants can kill the virus on surfaces.
Its symptoms include fever, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes, before causing a chickenpox-like rash on the face and body, the US agency explained.
The Massachusetts Department of Health reported that the case in the state – the first confirmed this year in the United States – occurred in a patient who had recently traveled to Canada and “does not pose any risk to the population, the person is hospitalized and in good condition”.
Health authorities in the Canadian province of Quebec announced that they were investigating at least 13 suspected cases of monkeypox, public broadcaster CBC reported on Wednesday.
The cases were reported to Montreal authorities after diagnoses were made at several clinics specializing in blood and sexually transmitted infections.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) told the CBC that it had called on “public health authorities and associated laboratories across Canada to be vigilant and investigate any potential cases.”
According to the CDC, there had been no reported cases of monkeypox for 40 years before it re-emerged in Nigeria in 2017.
With information from AFP