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The UK holidaymaker is one of five new suspected cases in Spain
A British tourist staying on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura is among five new cases being tested for monkeypox and if the results are positive, he could become the first UK holidaymaker diagnosed with the virus in Spain.
A spokesperson for the Canary Islands’ Health Service confirmed the news without giving any further details: “A suspected case of monkeypox in Fuerteventura corresponds to a British tourist.”
Suspected monkeypox infections have exploded in Spain in the last few days and health authorities have so far confirmed more than 40 positive cases, while a further 67 patients are being tested across 10 different regions.
The majority of the infections have been linked to a sauna in Madrid popular with gay men and a pride festival held recently in Gran Canaria, which attracted around 80,000 people from the UK and the rest of Europe.
However, while chief medical advisor Dr Susan Hopkins has advised tourists in Spain to be “alert to the virus”, she has insisted that “the risk to the general population remains extremely low.”
Monkeypox cases have so far mainly been detected in homosexual and bisexual men, although one suspected infection has been reported in a woman in the Extremadura region of Spain. This has led to the many misinterpreting monkeypox as a sexually transmitted disease, although it can be caught through sexual activity, according to the WHO’s Andy Seale.
He said: “While we are seeing some cases amongst men who have sex with men, this is not a gay disease, as some people in social media have attempted to label it. That's just not the case.”
The tropical virus has now been detected in sixteen countries including the US, Canada and Australia and although the WHO insists its spread is very “containable” and that human-to-human transmission can be stopped, the experts agree that “we can’t take our eye off the ball on what’s happening.”
While there is no known vaccine against monkeypox, several reports have suggested that administering a smallpox jab within four days of exposure could produce a “significant protective effect”.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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