Monkey Pox: Belgium Reports First Death

Belgium recorded the first death of a patient suffering from monkeypox this week, according to the weekly report by the public health institute Sciensano.

As of August 29, this country of 11.5 million people had “706 confirmed cases of monkeypox” (the name of the disease in English), according to the same source.

Among these patients, almost all suffering from skin lesions, “mainly in the anal-genital region”, 32 were hospitalized, specifies Sciensano, stressing that two of them “had an underlying immune disorder”.

“To date, one death has been reported in a person with underlying medical conditions,” the report continues.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) dashboard that lists all confirmed cases, as of August 31, there were 50,496 cases and 16 deaths recorded in 101 countries and territories.

In Europe, where the epidemic appeared in May, Spain had already recorded two deaths of patients with the virus at the end of July, without there either formally establishing a cause and effect link.

The epidemic mainly affects the gay community, and most transmissions take place during sexual intercourse.

But the WHO strongly emphasizes the need to avoid any stigmatization of a specific community, which could lead its members to hide the disease, not seek treatment and continue to spread it.

The organization had triggered its highest level of alert on July 24 to try to prevent the epidemic from gaining even more momentum and settling in permanently.