LONDON: Egypt announced on Wednesday it had detected the first monkeypox case in the country, who is an Egyptian man who has a residency in a European country.

“The Ministry of Health and Population announced that, as part of the continuous follow-up of the epidemiological situation, an Egyptian citizen tested positive for the monkeypox virus, and his infection was discovered through epidemiological monitoring procedures carried out by the ministry,” it said in a statement.

The 42-year-old was isolated in a hospital and his condition was stable, the statement added.

The ministry added that all health and preventive measures have been taken with his close contacts, in accordance with the treatment and follow-up protocols approved by the World Health Organization.

The ongoing viral outbreak emerged in May and has since spread to a number of countries, including the Middle East, and it follows over two years of strict isolation and health measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency as the disease has spread to dozens of countries.

Monkeypox — what you need to know

Nearly 28,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide in the last three months and the first deaths are starting to be recorded.

Monkeypox has been around in a dozen African countries for decades, but in contrast to previous outbreaks on the continent, the virus is now predominantly spread through sexual activity. Some 99 percent of US cases have so far been among men who have sex with men (MSM). In Africa, the virus notably affects children.

In the last three weeks studies printed in leading medical publications — British Medical Journal (BMJ), The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) — painted a clinical picture of the current spike in infections, even if it is still early days and the results are based on only a few hundred cases.

In each study, the MSM community accounts for nearly all cases.

All three studies agreed on the main symptoms. “The characteristics of the cohort we describe differ from those of populations affected in previous outbreaks in endemic regions,” the BMJ noted in the study of UK cases. The two key elements are fever, often with muscular aches, and skin lesions which scab over.

But the details vary, probably because of the type of transmission, with recent cases heavily linked to sexual activity.

(With Reuters and AFP)