first death in Belgium from Monkeypox

Present in Europe since the beginning of May, monkey pox was detected for the first timein France on Thursday May 19. Since, the epidemic continued its ascent. According to the latest data from Public Health France, there are currently more than 3,500 cases in the territory.

On a global scale, the WHO (World Health Organization) announced a few days ago that the bar of 50,000 cases of monkeypox (Monkeypox) had been exceeded. Added to this are also 16 deaths, including three in Europe. The latest, announced a few days ago, was detected in Belgium.

Monkey pox: 706 cases detected in Belgium

After Spain was hit a month ago by two monkeypox deaths, it is Belgium’s turn to announce his first death. It was the public health institute Sciensano who shared this information in its latest weekly report published on August 31.

The institution explains that on August 29, 706 cases were present on Belgian territory. Among them, the vast majority were men (699 against two women, two non-gendered people and a child under three years old). The patients nearly all suffered from skin lesions, “mainly in the anal-genital region”says Sciensano. Of this number, 32 patients were hospitalized and two of them had an “underlying immune disorder”.

One of them died without further information being provided about him.

Monkeypox is currently spreading in 101 different countriesmore the hotspots of the epidemic remain mainly North America and Europe. The WHO explains that most 16 deaths recorded come from these areas. For all these deaths, the health authorities had not been able to formally establish a causal link.

Monkeypox: a slowdown in France and the rest of Europe

Despite this new death, Europe has been experiencing a slowdown in the spread of the virus since the end of August. This is what the WHO said, which on July 24 launched a maximum level of alert for halt the Monkeypox’s advance.

“Some encouraging early signs, such as those observed in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and other countries, indicate that the epidemic may be slowing down“, estimated this Tuesday Hans Kluge, the regional director for Europe of the WHO. “It’s going in the right direction”, he concluded.

However, the organization insists on the importance of continue efforts to further reduce the impact of the epidemic. Thus, the WHO recommends maintaining surveillance and targeted vaccination measures. In France, since the start of the vaccination campaign, nearly 70,000 doses of vaccine have been administered. According to the Ministry of Health, this vaccination should continue for several more months, probably until the beginning of the year 2023.