"Given the incubation times, which reach a maximum of two weeks, it is possible that other cases will emerge in the next few days, but the spread of monkeypox is not even comparable to that of Covid. To date, confirmed cases in Italy
are 20
, of which 19 with a history of travel to areas where chains of contagion have been identified ".
The undersecretary of health, Pierpaolo Sileri, said this, speaking on the broadcast "Un Giorno da Pecora" on Rai Radio 1.
"We all know many people who have had Covid, or we have taken it ourselves, but I am sure that a year from now it will be practically impossible to have a friend, relative or acquaintance who has contracted monkeypox", he said.
"The transmission of monkeypox occurs through physical contact as important as that which occurs during sexual intercourse, but not only - said Sileri, specifying how the spread of this virus is not exclusively linked to the sexual sphere, much less to intercourse. homosexuals ".
"When the WHO spoke of men having sex with other men" - she added - she gave a strictly medical definition of the first cases. In reality where there is a potentially infected person is the
sexual act in itself that is configured as a potentially dangerous contact.
Shaking hands is not dangerous if there are no skin lesions, a hug between dressed people does not involve the risk of contagion ".
Since the last update on 25 May, 202 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in EU Member States, including Spain (69), Portugal (59), the Netherlands (20), Germany (16), France (12), Italy (9), Belgium (6), Czech Republic (4), Ireland (2), Sweden (2), Finland (1), Malta (1) and Slovenia (1);
136 confirmed cases have been reported outside the EU.
Since the start of the epidemic, 321 cases have been confirmed in the EU and 557 in the rest of the world.
The latest bulletin of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reports.