Italian monkeypox cases rise to five

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 24 - Italian monkeypox cases rose to five Tuesday as another case was found at the Spallanzani Hospital in Rome, Italy's premier infectious-disease institute.
    The hospital said the new case had "clinical and transmission characteristics similar to the previous ones".
    The number of Italian monkeypox cases rose to four Monday after the South-East Tuscany health authority said a 32-year-old man who returned to Arezzo on May 15 from a holiday in the Canary Islands had the disease.
    The news came amid reports that the virus has been sequenced for the first time, in Portugal.
    The Arezzo man is being treated at Arezzo's San Donato hospital.
    It is the first case in Tuscany.
    Four other men are being treated at the Spallanzani, in Rome.
    And 15 men who had been in contact with them are now self-isolating, across the Lazio region surrounding Rome, the hospital said.
    The first Italian case of monkey smallpox, or monkeypox, also regarded a man who had recently returned from a stay in the Canary Islands.
    Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research, hence the name 'monkeypox.' The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
    Since then monkeypox had mainly been reported in humans in other central and western African countries.
    The World Health Organization said it was monitoring the "quickly evolving situation" after recent reported cases in Britain, Spain and the United States, as well as Italy, sources said Monday.
    The WHO has now confirmed over a hundred cases with outbreaks in at least 12 countries.
    Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pains, swollen lymph nodes, and a rash that forms blisters and crusts over. Monkeypox can be contracted from close contact with an infected person, sexual relations, contaminated objects, handling bushmeat and an animal bite or scratch.
    Many of those who have contracted it are gay men but the United Nations AIDS body, UNAIDS, has condemned what it called "stigmatizing language" similar to that which circulated during the first stage of the AIDS epidemic, describing it as "the gay plague".
    Monkeypox is not classified as a sexually transmitted disease but it can be contracted via the exchange of bodily fluids, whether through close physical contact or through sexual relations.
    It is not an airborne virus and its several strains are very far from being as contagious as COVID-19 and its latest much faster spreading sub-variants.
    Also on Monday, Portuguese infectious disease Doutor Ricardo Jorge, of INSA in Lisbon, said his team had sequenced the latest strain of the monkeypox virus for the first time.
    He said it was similar to several cases detected in 2018-2019.
    The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said "most of the cases of monkeypox in Europe have presented with slight symptoms and, for the broader population, the probability of spread is very low".
    It said 85 cases had been detected in eight EU countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.
    European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the EU's health security committee would discuss the situation Tuesday.
    She added: "Our response and health emergency preparation authorities, HERA, ECDC and EMA are working in close contact to ensure that information on the epidemiological situation and the availability of vaccines and treatments is accurate and thorough".
    Milan Bicocca University virologist Francesco Broccolo said the strain that has been found in Europe is "the least aggressive strain of the virus" and stressed that it was now important to establish the causes of its spread. (ANSA).