All regions of mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Region of Madeira have reported cases of human infection with the Monkeypox virus, including 509 (82.5%) in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo health region.
According to the DGS, most of the cases reported to the Epidemiological Surveillance System belong to the age group between 30 and 39 years old and are male, with four female cases currently, two more a week ago.
The presence of the Monkeypox virus in Portugal was detected for the first time three months ago, on May 3, recalls the DGS in the weekly report with data collected until August 3 next Wednesday.
Vaccination of the first close contacts of the cases began on July 16, and to date 73 people have been vaccinated, out of 104 eligible contacts (70.2%).
The DGS indicates that eligible contacts in the various regions are still being identified and targeted for vaccination.
From January 1 to August 2, 2022, 23,357 confirmed cases and 112 possible cases of human infection with Monkeypox virus were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 83 countries.
The number of deaths linked to the disease rose from five to eight in one week.
Portugal advanced on August 2, according to WHO data, in the group of the 10 most affected countries in the world: United States of America (5,175), Spain (4,298), Germany (2,677) , United Kingdom (2,546), France (1995), Brazil (1,369), Netherlands (879), Canada (803), Portugal (633) and Italy (479).
According to the DGS, the most common symptoms of the disease are fever, severe headache, muscle aches, back pain, fatigue, enlarged lymph nodes with the gradual appearance of skin rashes affecting the skin and mucous membranes.
A sick person is no longer contagious until the skin lesions are completely healed and scabbed over, a period which according to the DGS can ultimately be longer than four weeks.
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