Extremadura registers the first hospital admission for monkeypox – Hoy.es

The region has recorded 22 cases of this disease since the first infected was detected in June New contagions of monkeypox in the region. Extremadura has detected two more cases since last Tuesday and there are already 22 people infected since the first case was declared in June, as reported this Friday by José María Vergeles, the second vice president and Minister of Health and Social Services. Of the affected patients, one has had to be admitted to the hospital due to his state of health, although the counselor wanted to emphasize that he does not present “serious criteria”. Vergeles has asked on several occasions that those who present symptoms related to this disease, go to health centers since it is the way to keep it under control and prevent outbreaks from occurring. In this sense, this Friday the counselor has also pointed out that “whether or not it is serious” the case, “the stigma cannot, nor should it silence this disease”, since “it must be treated well”. These 22 cases have been identified in two months, since Extremadura registered its first case of monkeypox on June 10. This represents a cumulative incidence per million inhabitants of 20. According to the report released this Friday by the Ministry of Health, the Extremaduran community is one of the regions with the lowest incidence. Last week the Minister of Health stated that the most common symptoms of people with monkeypox in the region are skin lesions and general malaise. Public health emergency The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Saturday, July 23, that monkeypox is a public health emergency of “concerning nature” on an international scale, the highest level of alert that the entity can establish on an illness. Until now, only covid-19 had reached this risk designation. This step implies that the WHO recommendations, in theory, are mandatory for the countries that make up the organization. In addition, it means that they have to be stricter with each of the outbreaks that occur, despite the fact that they were before. On the other hand, the WHO has asked those infected with monkeypox and their contacts not to travel. It should be remembered that Spain is the country in Europe with the most detected cases of monkeypox, 4,942 according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health made public this Friday. Of these patients, a total of 4,863 are men and 79 are women. The age of those infected ranges from 10 months to 88 years. In Spain, two deaths from this disease have been reported so far, one in the Valencian Community and another in Córdoba. 3,943 of 4,942 patients with available information were men who have sex with men. Information is available on the most likely transmission mechanism in 2,287 cases, 80.6% being through close contact in the context of sexual intercourse and 9.1% through close non-sexual contact. In relation to attendance at mass events, of the 3,152 cases with information on this variable, 646 attended an event on the dates prior to the onset of symptoms. A total of 11,536 confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported in the rest of Europe, with Germany (2,839), the United Kingdom (2,672), France (2,239), the Netherlands (957) and Portugal (633) being the most affected countries. after Spain. Most are young men with a history of relationships in a risky sexual context. In the rest of the world, a total of 10,619 confirmed cases have been reported in non-endemic countries, with the United States (7,102), Brazil (1,721), Canada (890), Peru (340) and Israel (160) being the most affected countries. Cases outside disease-endemic areas Monkeypox is a zoonotic viral disease whose first human cases were identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970. Endemic in some West and Central African countries, all cases identified outside these areas until 2022 were imported or linked to an imported case or to animals imported from endemic areas. However, in May this year, the United Kingdom reported the identification of several cases with no history of recent travel to endemic areas or contact with previously reported cases. Since then, numerous countries, mainly in Europe and the Americas, have reported confirmed or investigational cases with no epidemiological links to endemic areas in West or Central Africa, marking the first time that chains of monkeypox transmission have been reported in Europe and other non-Europe areas. endemic.