By Barry Hatton and Maria Cheng
Associated Press
Portuguese health authorities confirmed five cases of monkeypox in young men on Wednesday, and the United Kingdom announced another two, thus expanding the unusual outbreak in Europe of this disease, which is usually limited to Africa.
Portugal's Directorate General for Health said it was also investigating 15 suspected cases, all of them around Lisbon, the country's capital.
They correspond to men, mostly young, who suffer
skin lesions but their condition is stable.
The Portuguese authorities did not clarify if the patients had recently traveled to Africa or if they had any link to the recent cases in the United Kingdom.
2003 electron microscope image provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of monkeypox.AP
British health authorities said on Wednesday that they had identified two new cases of monkeypox, one in London and one in southeast England.
They said neither had previously traveled to Africa and it
was possible they had been infected in the UK
.
The patients had no known links to other previously confirmed patients, suggesting that there may be multiple chains of monkeypox transmission already in the country.
[Pollution kills up to 9 million people a year. The danger it presents is evolving]
Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser to Britain's Health Security Agency, said the latest cases, along with other reported infections in Europe, "confirm initial concerns that there could be monkeypox spread" community-wide in the country.
Fauci sends a message to the Latino community to protect themselves from COVID-19
May 13, 202200:41
The Spanish Ministry of Health has detected another eight suspected cases of monkeypox that have yet to be confirmed.
The disease belongs to a family of viruses that includes smallpox.
Most people recover within weeks, but the World Health Organization says the
disease is fatal to up to one in ten people
.
Sporadic cases have previously been seen in countries such as the UK or the US, but almost all have occurred in people who were likely infected on their travels to Africa.
[Two Children Hospitalized Due to “Health Crisis” Due to Lack of Baby Formula]
Ibrahim Soce Fall, the World Health Organization's deputy director for emergency responses, said the spread of the virus still needs to be better understood even in countries where it is endemic.
Although more than 6,000 cases were reported in Congo and 3,000 in Nigeria last year, there are still "many unknowns," he said.
After the death of a girl in Puerto Rico, they insist on alerting parents of the rare childhood hepatitis
May 16, 202201:48
The UK previously reported three cases, two of them from people who lived in the same household and the third from someone who had traveled to Nigeria, where the disease is common in animals.
[Know which foods can work as natural antidepressants]
The virus is usually transmitted to people by infected animals, such as rodents, although there is also transmission between people.
The disease is spread when there is very close contact with injuries, body fluids, respiratory droplets, or contaminated materials, such as bedding.
They point to an adenovirus as the possible cause of cases of childhood hepatitis
May 16, 202200:44
Some British experts said it was too soon to conclude that monkeypox had spread through sexual contact, although features of the outbreak there suggested that possibility.
"It's a potentially novel means of spread," said Neil Mabbott, an expert at the University of Edinburgh, adding that some related viruses are known to spread sexually.
Keith Neal, an infectious disease expert at the University of Nottingham, said transmission may not have occurred through sexual activity, but rather through "close contact associated with sexual intercourse."
Monkeypox usually causes fever, chills, a rash, and smallpox-like lesions on the face or genitals.
A developed smallpox vaccine has been approved for monkeypox, and several antivirals appear to be effective.