• Direct Monkeypox in Spain, last minute

  • Health Symptoms and details to differentiate monkeypox from other skin lesions

Italy and Sweden have become this Thursday the last countries to report cases of monkeypox, after those registered in

Great Britain, Spain, Portugal and the United States

, while the WHO has requested that the contacts of the wave of cases be traced .

The disease, which can be transmitted from person to person through air droplets, close body contact or by sharing contaminated bedding or objects, occurs in Central and West Africa.

According to the Swedish Public Health Agency, there is one infected person in the Stockholm area.

"The person infected with the virus in Sweden is not seriously ill, but is receiving treatment," infectious disease expert

Klara Sonden said

in a statement. "We do not yet know where the person was infected. The investigation is ongoing." .

A first contagion of monkeypox has also been detected in Italy.

The head of health for the Lazio region,

Alessio D'Amato

, has announced on Facebook that the case had been confirmed at the Italian National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

The ANSA news agency has reported that the infected man had returned

from a trip to the Canary Islands

and was isolated in a hospital in Rome.

The World Health Organization (WHO), already busy with the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the world for the past three years, has called

for contact tracing of the surge of cases.

So far, four countries in Africa have reported cases of monkeypox in 2022, namely

Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria

, the WHO has told DPA. The infection is considered endemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Congo, where it was first discovered in humans in 1970.

The general public and health clinics should be vigilant and have specialized personnel examine unusual skin rashes, the WHO warns in another statement.

If monkeypox is suspected, patients

should be isolated

, continues the health agency.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Wednesday that one person from that country had been infected.

A resident of the northeastern US state of Massachusetts was tested on Tuesday, and CDC laboratories confirmed monkeypox the next day.

The infected person had recently traveled to Canada by private transportation, the CDC said.

Canada's CBC reported that Quebec health authorities are investigating whether monkeypox has spread there after receiving notification that a visitor to the province was later confirmed as a case.

In Spain, eight infections have been confirmed in Madrid while in Portugal some 20 people have been infected.

Most of the cases reported so far are in men who have had sexual contact with other men.

The number of cases detected in Britain has risen to nine, the UK Health and Safety Authority reported on Wednesday. The first, detected in early May, was a person who had recently traveled to Nigeria.

The British authorities have advised the public, in particular men who have sex with men, to be vigilant for any injuries to their bodies.

The virus usually causes symptoms similar to those of smallpox, but milder.

Cases can also be serious.

Smallpox is considered eradicated worldwide since 1980 after a major vaccination campaign.

Experts suspect that the pathogen that causes monkeypox circulates in rodents - monkeys are so-called false hosts.

According to the WHO, the previous cases were usually due to travel to parts of West and Central Africa.

Monkeypox has appeared more frequently in Nigeria in recent years.

Since 2017, a total of 558 suspected cases have been reported there.

Of those, 241 have been confirmed and eight people have died.

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