The alert in several countries, Spain among themdue to monkeypox infections can open the door to recover smallpox vaccination in some people, an injection that was stopped more than 40 years ago, after this infectious disease was eradicated in the world.
The European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) has stated today that “if smallpox vaccines are available in the country, vaccination of high-risk contacts of people infected with monkeypox should be considered”, weighing in each case the risk-benefit.
video-caption-title ">Health warns of several suspected cases of monkeypox in Madrid
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The existence of vaccines should be due to stored national reserves, since this product was stopped injecting and manufacturing in 1980, because a year earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) considered smallpox eradicated in the world.
The monkey pox It is not the same as the fearsome smallpox, the virus is a variety in animals and human cases are usually few (due to contact with infected animals), milder and heal in about three weeks. In addition, it is of little transmission between humans, according to the experience of the WHO in the outbreaks that have occurred since the infection was detected in 1970 in Africa. That is where the majority of cases have occurred these decades, especially among children and with a mortality rate never higher than 10%.
High risk of transmission in activities with a lot of physical contact
However, the ECDC admits that “given the unusual frequency of human-to-human transmission” of the current outbreaks and “the probable community transmission” (that the virus circulates) among people who have not traveled to countries where this infection is more common, it is The risk of contagion should be considered high in activities with close physical proximity, such as sexual intercourse, while the risk of contagion is low if there is no contact between people.
Of the 9 confirmed cases until last night in the United Kingdom, the country where they were first diagnosed, and the twenty that are being studied in Spain, reported yesterday by the Community of Madrid, practically all of them are in young men who have declared having had sex with other men.
The most likely way
Spread by contact with skin lesions
Monkeypox is not considered a sexually transmitted disease and according to the ECDC, these current cases are the first ever reported among homosexuals. The virus is usually contracted by having been in contact with an infected animal (in Africa they are usually monkeys, rats, squirrels) or, between people, it is transmitted by the respiratory route (by breathing droplets) or by contact with fluids from infected people. . The fluid inside the pustules that form on the skin is very contagious and can infect clothing or other parts of the skin.
Although the Community of Madrid said yesterday that it was thought that the infection could have been through the mucous membranes during sexual intercourse, the ECDC believes that it is due to contact with skin lesions during intercourse. In Spain, a case of monkeypox had never been declared.
UK Health Security Agency monkeypox lesion specimens 
The EU body recommends health personnel to be alert to possible cases and health authorities and social organizations to increase prevention against the possible transmission of the disease, especially among men who have sex with other men or other people who have sex casual or many sexual partners.
When a case is suspected, it should be isolated and reported to epidemiological surveillance. The ECDC also notes that the use of antivirals should be considered in severe cases (there is no vaccine or specific antivirals against this virus).
No hospitalized in Spain
According to the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, last night in La Sexta, no suspected infected in Spain is hospitalized, but they are isolated at home (the ECDC recommends not being in physical contact with other people or pets until the rashes disappear) . The health person must attend to these people with protective equipment (epi).
In Spain, the National Center for Microbiology is analyzing the samples of twenty cases detected to confirm or rule out that it is the infection. Seven have already been confirmed. Portugal is also studying twenty possible cases and the United States declared one yesterday in a person who had traveled to Canada.
UK: More cases now than in the last four years
The United Kingdom alerted the WHO on May 7 that it had detected a case of monkeypox in a person, hospitalized in London, who had recently traveled to Nigeria, where it was believed he might have contracted the virus.
On the 14th, health authorities confirmed two more cases, in two men who lived together but were unrelated to the first case. And yesterday there were already 9 confirmed cases, most of them unrelated. They are more than the 7 declared in the British health system in four years (between 2018 and 2021). Until now, cases outside of Africa were usually from people who had traveled there.
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