Jimu News reporter Song Qingying
Since the first rare case of monkeypox was reported in the UK on May 7, the number of confirmed cases has risen to 9. The monkeypox outbreak has spread to the United States and has broken out in many parts of Europe. On May 18, local time, the first case of monkeypox virus was confirmed in the continental United States. Portugal and Spain also reported outbreaks one after another. Spain has issued a national alert.
Monkeypox virus, source: Reuters
According to US The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said on the 18th that a man in the state who had recently traveled to Canada was confirmed to be infected with the monkeypox virus, the Associated Press reported.
This is the first case of monkeypox detected in the United States this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The monkeypox virus was first discovered in the United States in 2003, when the virus spread from Ghana to Illinois in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 47 people died from groundhogs, according to NPR. He was infected with monkeypox and later recovered.
And according to the “Guardian” report, on the 18th, Portugal also announced that there have been 5 cases of monkeypox infection in the country. The Portuguese Ministry of Health said in a statement on the 18th that it is still investigating 15 suspected cases, all of which were found in the area around the capital Lisbon this month.
Portugal authorities said all confirmed and suspected cases were young men who were reported to have developed symptoms such as skin lesions and were in stable condition.
At the same time, Spain issued a national alert for a possible monkeypox outbreak in the country. The Spanish Ministry of Health said that 23 people in the country had symptoms of suspected infection, and all the suspected cases were in the Madrid area.
Spain has issued a national alert, source: Guardian
The UK reported its first case of monkeypox on May 7 this year, and the total number of confirmed cases in the UK has reached nine since the first case was reported, according to Sky News.
UKHSA chief medical adviser and epidemiologist Susan Hopkins said: “This outbreak is rare and unusual.”
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Monkeypox first appeared in 1950, and the first human case was reported in Congo (DRC) in 1970.
Experts have previously said that the monkeypox virus does not spread easily from person to person, and past monkeypox patients are often associated with travel to West Africa.
In 2021, confirmed cases have been reported in Texas and Maryland, all of whom have travel history to Nigeria.
However, the first confirmed case in the U.S. this year had never been to West Africa before. Similarly, in the two latest confirmed cases in the UK on May 14, the patients had not been to Africa before.
Senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official Jennifer McQuiston said: “We do have some concerns, which are very different from the monkeypox virus as we normally understand it.”
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Early symptoms of monkeypox include fever, body aches, swollen lymph nodes, and a rash that spreads from the face to all parts of the body. But monkeypox is usually a mild, self-limiting disease, and most people recover within a few weeks.
Studies have also shown that monkeypox has a fatality rate of about 10%, but it is currently less than 1% of cases reported in the UK.