40 percent of patients with monkey pox in Spain suffered complications that required specific medical attention. The data arose from a study carried out by two health centers, one in Barcelona and the other in Madrid, and was published in the scientific journal The Lancet.
Punctually, 25% of patients had pain associated with proctitis -complications in the intestinal system and the rectum-, 11% pain in the tonsils and 8% edema in the penis. Also, all had the typical skin lesions and the first symptoms appeared 7 days after contact.
Another particularity that emerged from the scientific study was that health professionals found a higher viral load in swabs performed on skin lesions than in those performed in the pharynx. This data will continue to be studied to find out if airborne transmission is possible.
Monkeypox in Argentina
The Ministry of Health of the Nation reported this Saturday that, So far, Argentina has 38 cases of smallpox of mono. Of the total confirmed cases, 70% became ill outside the country, authorities said. In addition, 100% of the sick people were men with an average age of 36 years.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently activated its highest level of health alert. The international health organization defined monkeypox as a zoonotic disease which produces symptoms similar to those seen in smallpox patients in the past, although less severe.
The first human cases were identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970. The number of cases in West and Central African countries has increased over the last decade.
Infections and stigmatization
Since the emergence of the first cases in May this year, the disease was associated with sexual practices of the LGBTIQ+ community by the WHO.
To avoid stigma towards a sector of the population, as happened with HIV in the eighties, the medical community clarified that monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease and its spread through sexual intercourse is due to contact with rashes, body fluids, and/or large respiratory droplets.