Monkeypox: two dead in Spain, state of emergency in New York

–

monkey pox

30 years old, data engineer, male. And suddenly infected: “I was in pain like never before”

23.07.2022

–

–

One must prevent the virus from “spreading to brothels or families with children,” said the immunologist Alfredo Corell from the University of Valladolid to the newspaper “El Mundo”. You also have to think about isolating infected people. The head of the department for infectious diseases at the Badalona University Hospital, Roger Paredes, demanded that the authorities not only in Spain but throughout Europe “accelerate and strengthen” the actions against monkeypox – for example through more vaccinations.

State of New York declares a state of emergency

Brazil also confirmed a monkeypox-related death over the weekend. The 41-year-old man had various previous illnesses, was immunocompromised and had undergone chemotherapy, said the Ministry of Health in Brasília. The extent to which monkeypox contributed to the man’s death is now being investigated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) had previously registered five deaths in the current monkeypox outbreak – all in Africa. In view of the rapid spread of monkeypox, the WHO declared the highest alert level last weekend. The worldwide spread of the infectious disease is unusual, so far it was essentially limited to six African countries.

The US state of New York declared a state of emergency because of the outbreak. “This action allows us to respond more quickly to the outbreak and take additional steps to vaccinate more New Yorkers,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. You have to “use every tool” to contain the virus and protect risk groups in particular as well as possible. To this end, contact tracing will be intensified and more health workers mobilized to administer vaccinations. In addition, the test capacities would be expanded.

The state of emergency applies in New York until August 28th. On Friday, the state Department of Health reported 1,383 infections with the monkeypox virus, which were mainly concentrated in the metropolis of New York. This corresponds to about a quarter of the cases registered in the USA. New York Mayor Eric Adams also declared a public health emergency in the city: “New York City is currently the epicenter of the outbreak and we estimate that around 150,000 New Yorkers may have been exposed to monkeypox.”

As of the most recent count, there have been nearly 23,000 cases of monkeypox worldwide. Europe is particularly affected with more than 14,000 cases. By Friday, almost 2,600 of these were in Germany. Monkeypox infection can cause a rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever, chills, and muscle pain. According to WHO information, about eight percent of patients in Europe have come to the hospital, mostly because of severe pain or additional infections.

killed him
DPA

–