Cases of monkeypox in Italy have risen to 6.
The first case of positivity
was also reported in Lombardy .
The laboratory of clinical microbiology, virology and diagnostics of the Sacco Hospital in Milan has in fact confirmed the diagnosis of positivity of the sample taken from a patient who presented symptoms attributable to monkeypox.
The fifth case, with clinical and transmission characteristics similar to the previous ones, was notified by the Spallanzani Institute.
"Investigations on other suspicious cases are underway", the Institute specifies.
There are 16 contacts in isolation.
Spallanzani researchers
have "completed the first phase of the DNA sequence analysis of the Monkeypox virus of the first three Italian cases".
The samples that were positive - the Institute announced - "were sequenced for the hemagglutinin (HA) gene, which allows for phylogenetic analysis".
The samples were all found to be similar to the West African strain
"with 100% similarity to the viruses isolated in Portugal and Germany".
"We could also be facing a" pan-European "virus in Italy,
correlated with outbreaks in various European countries, in particular that of the Canary Islands", underlines the Institute.
ANSA.it
Monkeypox, there are two vaccines available - Health & Wellness
Products in the USA and Denmark, not currently used (ANSA)
"The so-called monkeypox will remain a contained phenomenon, probably limited to a limited initial outbreak."
Thus the virologist Massimo Galli, answering the question of a journalist on the sidelines of a scientific seminar in Naples.
"It is not at all a monkey virus - added Galli - it is a virus probably present in some species of rodents. Men and monkeys are only accidental victims, and therefore it is not a relevant virus for our species".
"Poxviruses - added the virologist - are very different from that of Covid, they are DNA viruses and tend to adapt in enormous numbers, over thousands of years, to their own species".
"The smallpox defined 'of the monkey' - he said again - is a somewhat less selective virus,