The Public Health Agency of Barcelona (Aspb) has declared today, Thursday August 17, a new outbreak of monkeypox (monkeypox) in the Catalan capital. The agency has sent a release to the centers and entities that carry out assistance activities, to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access, to ask them to Report any suspicion. The general deputy director of Public Health Surveillance and Emergency Response of the Generalitat, Jacobo Mendioroz, confirms the outbreak to this newspaper and that, for now, they have detected six cases (two in July and four in August) in Barcelona, all in men who have sex with men but what, at coincide in the same space and time, Public Health has chosen to declare the outbreak. Is he second shoot which declares Public Health since last year, which ended this March.
The body discards a “epidemiological link” between infections, but works with the hypothesis that there is already “community spread” and a “possible underdiagnosis”. The situation coincides with the one they live other European countries, where cases are rising, and especially Portugal, where an outbreak of monkeypox was reported which, between May 3 and July 28, has affected 1,002 people, according to the Spanish Ministry of Health. Salut Pública calls the collective of men who have sex with men to get vaccinated for the second time this year.
mendioroz rules out that this outbreak, which expected to increase be like last year, when monkeypox (Spain was the European country with the most infections) saturated the Drassanes unit of the Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, which specializes in sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In that outbreak, which began in August 2022 and ended at the end of March of this year, a total of 2,321 people, According to figures from Public Health. “We do not expect a large-scale outbreak, but rather isolated cases or small outbreaks like this one,” Mendioroz points out. He believes that this will be the case because people are now vaccinated but, in addition, this epidemiologist points out, because the system works “better” than last year and is detected faster.
through sexual means
monkey pox It is not transmitted only by sexual route, but also through respiratory secretions, objects or by direct contact with the infected person’s rashes. The outbreaks that are taking place are considered a sexually transmitted infection (STI), since they originate from sexual physical contact. Monkeypox mainly affects men who have sex with men although last year it already demonstrated reaching more and more profiles of populations.
Yesterday, the WHO confirmed 1,020 new cases of monkeypox, which represents an increase of 1.2% of the total number of positives, and three deaths since its last report, dated July 14, and until August 9. In the last two weeks, the WHO report indicates that the reported cases have increased in the regions of the Western Pacific, Europe and America. A new country, Trinidad and Tobago, has reported its first three cases of mpox.
They still haven’t come to the consultation
entities like CheckPoint in Barcelona, dedicated to the detection of STIs, they have not yet diagnosed any case of monkeypox. “We stopped seeing monkeypox at the end of last year, although in cases of suspicion We continue to do PCR tests,” the CheckPoint doctor points to this newspaper Pep Col. The monkeypox vaccine stopped the infection.
check point continue to vaccinate of this disease to men who have sex with men. “We are calm but with the high guard. We do not rule out that with the Circuit [el festival LGTBI de Barcelona] Let’s start seeing more cases. I don’t think this outbreak have the magnitude of last summer because there are many more people immunized, either by the vaccine or by natural immunity”, Coll points out. Those over 50 are already immunized when they receive the smallpox vaccine as children.
The monkeypox vaccine protects, the problem is that it is not known how long immunity lasts. CheckPoint is doing a follow-up to find out. For his part, Mendioroz makes a appeal to get vaccinated a second time to people who were vaccinated last year, who are part of the group of men who have sex with men. Also, to avoid risk exposures. And to consult with a care center before the appearance of symptoms.
The symptoms
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The symptoms of monkeypox are flu-like and include the typical muscle aches, fever, chills, exhaustion, headache, back pain, swollen lymph nodes. and the typical rash so characteristic of smallpoxwhich in this case usually begins on the face to spread to other areas of the body, especially the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.
Most often, the start rash when it starts to raise the fever The monkeypox rash begins as flat, red spots, which then develop into blisters that fill with pus, forming pustules. And the itching can cause such strong itching that the patient himself ends up tearing off the scabs, which will later leave scars.