Monkeypox case tally in Spain, Portugal surges to 172

MADRID

The number of monkeypox cases shot up on the Iberian Peninsula on Friday, with Spain now having confirmed a total of 98 infections and Portugal another 74.

The Health Ministry also reported Spain’s first monkeypox case in a woman.

Authorities said she was directly related to the chain of transmission.

Spain has tested 200 people for the virus but 102 samples have come back negative.

Earlier this week, Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias said all the cases in Spain have been mild.

In Spain, many of the infections have been traced back to two spreader events — a bathhouse in Madrid and a gay pride festival in the Canary Islands.

Portugal confirmed its first cases of the virus on May 18.

Earlier on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said nearly 200 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in more than 20 countries in the ongoing global outbreak.

The United Kingdom has the most confirmed infections – 101.

“The first sequencing of the virus shows that the strain is not different from the strains we can find in endemic countries and (this outbreak) is probably due more to a change in human behavior,” said Sylvie Briand, director of the WHO’s Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases Department.