Spain is on "high alert" as Madrid's main airport - Barajas - may implement stringent controls to prevent an mpox outbreak.
Experts predict a surge in cases and EU nations are now on edge after a new variant of Mpox caused alarm. Madrid's health and environmental chiefs are urging the Government to ramp up checks at Barajas Airport, potentially including health screenings or close surveillance of passengers from African countries most affected by the disease and those who have been in contact with infected individuals.
Carlos Novillo, head of Madrid's environment sector, has called on the Ministry of Health to "take preventive measures, especially in Barajas, an important airport that registers a large flow of travellers daily instead of just being reactive".
The WHO's latest data indicates that around 13 countries in the Americas have reported mpox infections from different strains this year. John Claude Udahemuka, a University of Rwanda lecturer involved in the medical response to mpox, warned: "It's undoubtedly the most dangerous of all the known strains of mpox, considering how it is transmitted, how it is spread, and also the symptoms."
He emphasized the need for countries to brace for the virus's spread. "Everyone should get prepared. Everyone should be able to detect the disease as early as possible. But more important, everyone should support the local research and local response so that it doesn't spread".
A second person has been confirmed to have contracted the deadly new mpox strain outside of Africa as the WHO declared it a “public health emergency”. An upsurge of cases of the disease - previously known as monkeypox - in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and other African nations has raised alarm worldwide. This week the WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern - the same classification used in the past for Covid-19, Ebola outbreaks.
So far no cases of this new strain of mpox sweeping across Africa have been seen in the UK - but now a second case has been found elsewhere. A man in Thailand tested positive this week following an earlier diagnosis in Sweden.
Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, Thailand’s director-general of the Department of Disease Control said the patient was “infected with the Clade 1b strain of monkeypox", it has been reported.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is an infectious disease caused by a virus. It can cause flu-like symptoms including fever, muscle aches, and a skin rash or pus-filled lesions that can last two to four weeks.