The Ministry of Health has confirmed this Saturday a second death from monkeypox in Spain through its epidemiological bulletin. The first was known this Friday and it is the third death reported outside of Africa since the outbreak of this disease was detected in the United Kingdom last May. Since then, the increase in the number of cases has not stopped and, a week ago, the WHO declared an international emergency for monkeypox.
The decision did not have the consensus of the WHO expert committee, however, its director, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, decided to activate the mechanism due to the large number of reported infections in more than 70 countries. The international emergency is the highest level of alert collected by the International Health Regulations.
At the moment, Spain accumulates 4,298 confirmed cases of monkeypox and infections have been recorded in 17 autonomous communities. Madrid and Catalonia continue to lead in terms of the number of cases with 1,656 and 1,406, respectively. It is followed by Andalusia, which has notified 498, the Valencian Community 213, the Canary Islands 102, Euskadi 98, the Balearic Islands 89, Aragon 45, Galicia 37, Asturias 36, Castilla y León 31, Castilla-La Mancha 23, Extremadura 20, Murcia 19, Cantabria. 15, Navarra 8 and La Rioja 2.
Of the 3,750 infected for whom information is available, one hundred and twenty were hospitalized (3.2%) and two died. Specifically, of the total confirmed cases, more than 4,000 were men and only 64 women, and the age ranges between 10 months and 88 years, with an average age of 37 years.
According to these data, 3,458 were men who have sex with men (of the 4,148 patients for whom this type of information is available). Information is also available on the most likely transmission mechanism in 2,253 cases, 82.1% being through close contact in the context of a sexual relationship and 10.5% through close non-sexual contact.
In relation to attendance at mass events, of the 3,137 cases with information on this variable, 560 attended an event on the dates prior to the onset of symptoms.
www.eldiario.es