Italian monkeypox cases rise to four

ROME. KAZINFORM - The number of Italian monkeypox cases has risen to four after the South-East Tuscany health authority said a 32-year-old man who returned to Arezzo on May 15 from a holiday in the Canary Islands had the disease, ANSA reports.

He is being treated at Arezzo's San Donato hospital.
It is the first case in Tuscany.

Three other men are being treated at Italy's premier infectious disease hospital, the Spallanzani, in Rome.
The first Italian case of monkey smallpox, or monkeypox, also regarded a man who had recently returned from a stay in the Canary Islands.
Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research, hence the name 'monkeypox.' The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Since then monkeypox had mainly been reported in humans in other central and western African countries.
The World Health Organization said it was monitoring the «quickly evolving situation» after recent reported cases in Britain, Spain and the United States, as well as Italy.
Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pains, swollen lymph nodes, and a rash that forms blisters and crusts over.
Monkeypox can be contracted from close contact with an infected person, sexual relations, contaminated objects, handling bushmeat and an animal bite or scratch.