Cases of the “very unusual” disease have been confirmed in Italy and Sweden
The United States and European countries such as Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Italy and Sweden confirmed cases of smallpox, a rare African disease, on Thursday.
Doctors at Spallanzani Hospital in Rome said they had diagnosed a person with smallpox after returning from a trip to the Canary Islands. Two more cases are suspected, but not confirmed, according to reports from Reuters and the Italian daily La Repubblica.
At the same time, Sweden has confirmed a case of smallpox in the Stockholm region, according to a press release from the Swedish Public Health Agency.
“The person in Sweden who has been confirmed to be infected with the virus is not seriously ill, but has received care.” That is what the Swedish health care official Klara Sonden says in the statement. “We do not yet know where the person became infected,” she said, adding that the investigation is ongoing to determine the extent of “very unusual” disease.
Swedish health officials say they reported the case to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Symptoms of the disease include lesions, fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, swollen lymph nodes, chills and fatigue. Skin problems due to monkey pox are “often reported as localized to the genitals, groin and skin around the anal opening,” The Public Health Agency said this on Wednesday.
ECDC notes “unusually high frequency of human-to-human transmission” observed in recently confirmed and suspected cases reported in Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom. It says “The likelihood of further spread of the virus through close contact, for example during sexual activity, is considered high,” and it “Intimate contact during sex with infectious skin lesions seems to be the likely means of transmission.” The probability of transmission in the absence of close contact is considered low.
Source: sn.dk