Former president and current secretary of the Association of Foreign Medical Doctors (AMSE) and head of the Servicio de Sanidad Exterior in Huelva
Increasing temperatures and international travel, among other factors, are causing the dengue epidemic to spread to more countries. In Spain, there is a growing number of imported cases, and health authorities warn that the incidence may increase. This article explains the basics of this disease.
With the increase in cases of mpox, the European Union's Health Security Committee met on Monday. According to the Ministry of Health, the meeting concluded ‘with recommendations very similar to those previously issued by the WHO and the ECDC’. The risk of the likelihood of mpox spreading to the general EU population is currently considered to be ‘low’, although it increases in populations with close contact with diagnosed cases and in particularly vulnerable people. Further imported cases in the EU are not excluded and vaccination of the general population is not recommended. In addition, the HSC does not recommend border control.
Nearly half of the world's population is at risk from dengue fever. Diagnosed cases have increased eightfold in the last decade, a rise fuelled by global warming. August 26 marks the International Day against this disease endemic in more than 100 tropical and subtropical countries, which is beginning to affect new areas, including Europe.
The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended granting marketing authorisation for the tetravalent dengue vaccine (live, attenuated) Takeda. The vaccine is intended to prevent disease caused by dengue virus serotypes 1, 2, 3 and 4 in people aged four years and older. Although an approved vaccine already exists, according to the EMA, this quadrivalent vaccine shows increased protection in children and people over 45 years of age.
Today the World Health Organisation declared smallpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The move was announced at a press conference by its director general, Tedros Adhanom, despite a lack of consensus in the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee.
Castilla-La Mancha has sealed a farm in Toledo after a minor was hospitalised (and later discharged) after drinking water from a tap. Analyses by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III have confirmed that it is not cholera. Although the bacteria consumed is the same, in this case it did not contain the toxins that cause the disease.
A study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases analyses the response of seven monkeypox patients diagnosed in the UK between 2018-2021, treated with the antivirals brincidofovir and tecovirimat.
On 18 May, the Ministry of Health confirmed to SMC Spain that eight suspected cases "clinically compatible" with monkeypox had been detected. The same afternoon, the Consejería de Sanidad de la Comunidad de Madrid reported that it had detected 23 possible cases of infection. These cases need to be confirmed after testing. At least 7 cases have been confirmed in the UK and Portugal. This is a rare zoonotic viral disease and there is no vaccine or specific treatment available. Treatment is symptomatic and supportive. Most cases are resolved favourably.
Following the detection of several cases of people infected with the simian smallpox virus in the UK, health authorities are concerned that there may be EU-wide transmission with undetected infections, both within and outside the country. In Spain, the Community of Madrid has identified 23 possible cases of infection.