Outbreak of monkeypox disease linked to suspected Spanish sauna superspreader event – World News

Experts say there is “reason to believe” the virus, endemic to West Africa, was brought in by visitors from abroad, including the Fetish Festival in Belgium, amid recent cases in other countries

The monkeypox outbreak, which is spreading across the UK and around the world, has been linked to a suspected superspreader event at a sauna in the Spanish capital, Madrid.

Twenty cases of the disease, which is endemic to West Africa, have been identified in the UK, with additional cases in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. as well as in the USA, Canada and Australia.

In the Spanish capital, most of the country’s 30 cases have been traced to a sauna there, according to officials.

Enrique Ruiz Escudero, the region’s health chief, told reporters that health officials reported that a “remarkable proportion” of cases in the UK and Europe affect gay and bisexual men.

The first 14 cases in Portugal involved gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. The country confirmed a further nine cases on Friday.

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In Belgium, three cases have also been linked to a fetish festival in Antwerp, according to The Daily Telegraph.

“There is reason to believe that following recent cases in other countries, the virus was brought to the festival by visitors from abroad,” the festival said on its website.

Darklands is a paid event that describes itself as a place where “various tribes of the gay fetish community (leather, rubber, army, skinhead, puppies…) come together to create a one-of-a-kind fetish brotherhood spectacle “.

The UK confirmed 11 new cases of monkeypox on Friday, bringing the total to 20.

According to John Brownstein, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in America, 127 cases have been reported in 11 countries worldwide.

According to German scientists, the outbreak is the largest viral condition observed in Europe so far, and it can cause symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle pain, swollen lymph nodes and chills.

It’s rare outside of Africa, which is why health leaders are raising concerns. Fabian Leendertz from the Robert Koch Institute described the current outbreak as an epidemic.