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Still, at a public session on Monday, WHO officials described the outbreak as “containable” and cautioned against stigmatizing affected groups, saying the disease can infect anyone.Īuthorities in Britain, Spain and Portugal have said most of the cases identified so far were in young men whose infections were picked up when they sought help for lesions at sexual health clinics. On Monday, Denmark announced its first case, Portugal revised its total upwards to 37 and Italy reported one further infection. To date, WHO has recorded more than 90 cases of monkeypox in a dozen countries including Britain, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the U.S. On Monday, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Director Andrea Ammon said “the likelihood of further spread of the virus through close contact, for example during sexual activities among persons with multiple sexual partners, is considered to be high.” “By nature, sexual activity involves intimate contact, which one would expect to increase the likelihood of transmission, whatever a person’s sexual orientation and irrespective of the mode of transmission,” said Mike Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London. Anyone can be infected through close contact with a sick person - or their clothing or bedsheets. Health officials say most of the known cases in Europe have been among men who have sex with men, but scientists say it will be difficult to disentangle whether the spread is being driven by sex itself or merely close contact. That marks a significant departure from the disease’s typical pattern of spread in central and western Africa, where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents and primates and outbreaks have not spilled across borders. Related: Broward County may have Florida’s 1st case of monkeypox