Almost 100 cases of Mpox have been detected in Portugal since June, resulting from the second outbreak of this contagious disease that remains active, with an average of five new cases reported per week, according to the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).
“In June 2023, a new outbreak was identified, after about three months without reported cases,” says the DGS, noting that between June 1 and August 30 this year, 97 laboratory-confirmed cases were identified, 94 of which were notified in the National Epidemiological Surveillance System, with a clinical profile similar to the previous outbreak.
According to the DGS, almost all of the cases are men (one female), aged between 20 and 55 (median 33), living mostly in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley (89%) and North (11%) regions,
Of the confirmed cases, 74 (80%) are men who have had sex with men, says the health authority, noting that “in terms of the clinical picture, exanthema [rash] was observed in 78 (83%) of the cases with available information”.
Of the cases with available information, 36 (38%) have HIV infection.
“Considering the 21 days prior to the onset of symptoms, 32 (34%) cases reported attending saunas, 68 (72%) had sexual contacts with multiple partners and 31 (33%) participated in group and/or anonymous sex activities; 5 (5%) cases reported traveling abroad,” the health authority said.
In total, between May 3, 2022 and August 30, 2023, 1,050 cases of Mpox were identified in Portugal, including one death.
On August 22, the WHO continued to consider that “the global risk is moderate, and it is also moderate in the European Region”, with Portugal leading the European region as one of the most affected countries, followed by the United Kingdom (19), Spain (10), France (4), Germany (3), the Netherlands (3), and Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland (2).
Since the start of vaccine availability (on July 16, 2022) and until August 30, 2023, 5,763 people have been vaccinated, most of them in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region. Of the 9,377 inoculations, 8,386 occurred in a pre-exposure context.
The DGS reinforces the need for health professionals and civil society to focus their efforts on the early detection of new cases, the isolation of patients during the contagious period and the vaccination of eligible groups with two doses at an interval of 28 days, including by self-proposal.
The public health departments of the country’s different health regions have “made efforts to expand the number of available sites”, and the list of vaccination sites is available on the DGS website.
Worldwide, between January 1, 2022 and August 29, 2023, 89,596 confirmed cases and 663 probable cases of Mpox were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 114 countries, including 157 deaths.
The number of new cases reported weekly in the world increased by 40.8% in the week from August 21 to 27, compared to the previous week, with the majority of new cases in the last four weeks being reported in the Western Pacific Region (59.4%) and the Americas Region (23.5%).
