Monkeypox spreads to Italy and Sweden as WHO raises alarm

GENEVA: Italy and Sweden became the latest countries on Thursday to report cases of the rare disease monkey pox, with Britain, Spain, Portugal and the United States already dealing with the outbreak.

Monkeypox occurs in Central and West Africa, often in proximity to tropical rain forests, and is considered endemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it was first discovered in humans in 1970.

The illness can be transmitted from person to person through air droplets, close bodily contact or sharing contaminated linens or objects.

According to the Swedish Public Health Agency, one person is infected in the greater Stockholm area.

“The person infected with the virus in Sweden is not seriously ill, but is receiving treatment,” infectious disease expert Klara Sonden said in a statement.

“We do not yet know where the person became infected. The investigation into this is ongoing.”

A first monkeypox infection has also been detected in Italy.

The health chief of the Lazio region, Alessio D’amato, said on Facebook that the case had been confirmed at Italy’s National Institute for Infectious

Diseases.

The ANSA news agency reported that the infected man had returned from a trip to Spain’s Canary Islands and was in isolation in a hospital in Rome.

The World Health Organization (WHO), already busy with the coronavirus pandemic which has struck the world over the past three years, has called for vigorous contact tracing of the spate of cases.

So far, four countries in Africa have reported cases of monkeypox in2022, namely Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, the WHO said.

The general public and health clinics should be aware and have unusual skin rashes examined by specialist staff, the WHO said in a separate statement. If monkeypox is suspected, patients should be isolated, the health body continued.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Wednesday that a person there had been infected.

A resident of the US state of Massachusetts in the country’s north-east was tested on Tuesday, with the CDC labs confirming monkeypox the following day. The infected person had recently travelled to Canada using private transport, the CDC noted. —

The illness can be transmitted from person to person through air droplets, close bodily contact or sharing contaminated linens or objects