Wednesday 18 May 2022 03:07 PM Monkeypox hits Europe: Portugal says five men have virus while Spain probes ... trends now
Monkeypox has now been spotted in Portugal and Spain, in what could be the first global outbreak of the rare disease.
Spain is monitoring eight men who it believes are infected, with tests being carried out to confirm they have the virus.
All of the men are gay or bisexual, according to local media, and most were detected at STI clinics in Madrid.
Five men in Portugal have also tested positive and at least 15 more cases are being investigated, health officials there said today.
These cases are all male and mostly 'young' — but it is not yet clear how they caught the virus.
Until now, monkeypox cases were confined to travellers and their relatives returning from western and central Africa, where the virus is endemic.
But experts now fear it is spreading more widely for the first time, after seven Britons were diagnosed in the past fortnight.
Six of them appear to have been infected in the UK and the majority are not linked, which suggests more cases are going undetected. Health chiefs are scrambling to find the source of the cases.
Four of the British patients are gay or bisexual men, and officials say the pattern of transmission is 'highly suggestive of spread in sexual networks'.
Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at the University of Reading, told MailOnline he suspects UK case numbers are already 'in the tens'.
But he insisted the disease will not spread like Covid, adding: 'I would be surprised if we ever got to more than 100 cases [in Britain]'.
Monkeypox is a rare viral infection which kills up to one in ten of those infected but does not spread easily between people. The tropical disease is endemic in parts of Africa and is known for its rare and unusual rashes, bumps and lesions (file photo)
Seven Britons have been diagnosed with monkeypox and six of them appear to have contracted it in the UK — in a sign the virus is spreading in the community. The seventh UK patient had brought the virus back from Nigeria, where the disease is widespread. At least three patients are receiving care at specialist NHS units in London and Newcastle
Regions across Spain have been put on alert following the announcement of eight suspected cases in Madrid.
Confirmation is still awaited from the National Centre for Microbiology but health chiefs say 'great care must be taken.'
The country's top public health doctor, Fernando Simón, said 'it is not likely that monkeypox will generate a significant transmission but it cannot be ruled out'.
The Spanish health alert system has called on communities to notify public health services 'urgently' of patients with symptoms.
He said it was now necessary to take extreme surveillance measures and investigate all the hypotheses about the routes of contagion.
Mr Simon was talking to the media in Valencia during the I International Summit on Pandemic Management.
Spanish newspaper El Pais says it has had access to health papers and that the health leaders have confirmed the investigation.
It claims most of the cases were detected at the Sandoval Health Centre in the capital, an STI clinic.
The Spanish broadcaster RTVE said all eight of the patients were men who had homosexual relationships.
Meanwhile, the suspected cases in Portugal were all detected in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region.
The men are said to be 'stable' and all suffering from 'ulcerative lesions', one of the tell-tale signs of the virus.
Portugal's health ministry has issued a warning urging people with lesions and rashes to see a doctor.
When these symptoms appear, 'direct physical contact' should be avoided, officials added.
Until now monkeypox had only ever been detected in four countries outside of Africa — the UK, US, Israel and Singapore.
All of the cases had travel links back to Nigeria and Ghana.
Infections are more common in central and western Africa, where they can result from direct contact with infected animals.
Health experts investigating the new monkeypox outbreak in Britain believe the virus may be spreading sexually between people for the first time.
It was thought that monkeypox could only be passed on through close contact with the likes of body fluids, respiratory droplets and lesions.
Nurses and doctors are being advised to stay 'alert' to patients who present with a new rash or scabby lesions (like above)
But an expert from the UK Health Security Agency said the latest UK cases 'appear to have acquired the infection via sexual contact'.
Dr Mateo Prochazka, who leads the UKHSA team which is investigating monkeypox, described this route of transmission as 'novel'.
Seven people have been diagnosed with the virus in England over the past two weeks, five of which are in London.