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Paris (AFP) – France and Germany reported their first monkeypox infections on Friday, thus joining several countries in Europe and North America, where cases of this disease from central and western Africa have already been reported.
A first case of monkeypox was recorded Thursday in France, in a 29-year-old man who had not traveled to a country where the virus is circulating, health authorities announced.
The man is isolated at his home in the Paris region and the authorities identify his contacts to inform them of how to act to limit the spread of the virus.
The Institute of Microbiology of the German Armed Forces said for its part that it had detected the virus in a patient who developed skin lesions, one of its symptoms.
Monkeypox is a rare disease, native to Africa. The virus can be transmitted by direct contact with broken skin or mucous membranes of a sick person.
It can also spread through fluids or contact with the environment of the sick person, such as bedding, clothing, dishes, bath towels, etc.
Since May 14, cases, with no direct link to travel to Africa, have been confirmed in the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, and Italy, as well as in the United States and Canada.
Its symptoms include fever, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes, before causing a chickenpox-like rash on the face and body.
The disease, generally benign, is overcome after two or three weeks. The virus, which has infected thousands of people in central and western Africa in recent years, is not usually fatal.
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