A tattoo shop in Cádiz, linked to an outbreak of the disease with at least twelve infected
The World Health Organization (WHO) has asked those infected with monkeypox, suspected cases of the disease and their close contacts not to travel to avoid spreading the virus. The health agency also asked the countries to establish protocols for carrying out diagnostic tests and to prepare facilities for the isolation of suspected cases, in addition to demanding extensive vaccination for the sick or those possibly infected with the prophylaxis of the human vaccine, which is only produced, in a still small number, by the Danish laboratory Bavarian Nordic.
These are the main measures that the WHO has proposed after the entity defined monkeypox on Saturday as an international public health emergency of “concerning nature”, the maximum alert level that can be decreed on a disease. This declaration allows the WHO to make recommendations that, on paper, the countries must comply with, although later it is each Government that decides whether or not to do so or what specific measures to take.
WHO experts were divided when it came to raising the alert for monkeypox to the highest level, but the agency’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, finally ended up supporting the declaration of international emergency.
Spain is the country in the world with the most cases, 3,125, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health, published on Tuesday, and the count continues to rise. This Sunday, the health authorities have detected an outbreak of at least 12 cases of monkeypox related to a tattoo, micropigmentation and piercing establishment in San Fernando, which has been inspected and whose closure has been decreed preventively.
The Ministry of Health and Families has confirmed to Europa Press that the cases have been declared to the Epidemiological Surveillance System of Andalusia and that the epidemiological investigation related to the active search for cases and contacts has been initiated.
Likewise, the inspection of the establishment has been carried out, proceeding to its closure in a preventive manner. The Board has recalled the “importance that tattoos and piercings must be carried out correctly, in such a way that it does not generate risks to the health of users or to the workers themselves.”
According to the latest available data, released by the Ministry on Friday, Andalusia maintains a total of 273 active cases of monkeypox and has another 58 cases under investigation.
As of July 21, the province that continues to register the most cases is Malaga, with a total of 123, followed by Seville with 69, Cádiz with 30, Granada, with 19, Córdoba, with 18, seven in Huelva, four in Jaén. and three in Almería.
This Saturday, the WHO declared monkeypox an international public health emergency of concern.
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