First case of Monkeypox (monkeypox) identified in Emilia-Romagna. He is a thirty-five-year-old Chilean citizen who came to the emergency room of the Sant’Orsola Polyclinic on Wednesday afternoon. The man stayed in Madrid at the beginning of May; in all likelihood it is there that he was infected: what alerted him, in fact, was the news that in a place where he had been, more positive cases had been reported and for this reason the place had subsequently been closed. Before arriving in Italy, on May 24th he traveled to Germany.
During the visit, the patient was shown to be in good health, presenting a limited number of skin blisters, some of them on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. He was subjected to the swab provided in these cases (a sample of the liquid contained in a vesicle is analyzed).
The virological test carried out by CRREM, regional reference laboratory for microbiological emergencies at the Sant’Orsola Polyclinic confirmed the clinical hypothesis: the patient tested positive for MPXV, the Monkeypox virus. He is now hospitalized in isolation at the infectious disease ward of the Sant’Orsola hospital.
The MPXV virus
MPXV is a virus first identified in captive monkeys in 1958 and then in 1970 in a man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The disease, called monkeypox, is a rather rare infectious disease in humans, but already known and widespread in Africa. The virus is transmitted through the liquid contents of the vesicles, which appear in infected subjects. In the past, some sporadic cases have been identified in the United States, Israel, Singapore and Great Britain, always linked to travel or transport of animals from areas at risk. The disease is benign and tends to regress spontaneously in 2/4 weeks without specific therapies.