Stockholm: The number of confirmed cases of monkeypox worldwide has reached 219 outside of countries where it is endemic, according to an update released by the European Union’s disease agency.

More than a dozen countries where monkeypox is unusual, mostly in Europe, have reported at least one confirmed case, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in an epidemiological note released Wednesday night.

“This is the first time that chains of transmission are reported in Europe without known epidemiological links to West or Central Africa, where this disease is endemic,” the note said.

It added that most of the cases were detected in young men, self-identifying as men who have sex with men.

The United Kingdom – where monkeypox’s unusual appearance was first detected in early May – currently has the largest bulk of confirmed cases, 71.

It is followed by Spain with 51 cases and Portugal, 37.

Outside of Europe, Canada has 15 and the United States has nine.

The total number of cases reported Wednesday has increased fivefold since its first count on May 20, when the EU agency said there were 38 cases.

Contagion risk is “very low”, the ECDC said earlier this week, but warned that people who have had multiple sexual partners – regardless of sexual orientation – are more at risk.

“The clinical presentation is generally described to be mild,” it said, adding that there has been no deaths.

Monkeypox – a less severe disease compared to its cousin smallpox – is endemic in 11 countries in West and Central Africa.

It spreads by a bite or direct contact with an infected animal’s blood, meat or bodily fluids, and initial symptoms include a high fever before quickly developing into a rash.

People infected with it also get a chickenpox-like rash on their hands and face.

No treatment exists but the symptoms usually clear up after two to four weeks, and it is not usually fatal.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the emerging disease lead for the World Health Organization, said Monday that monkeypox is a “containable situation”.

SOURCE: AFP

Fire ripped through a superyacht in southwest England on Saturday, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky and briefly releasing the burning vessel to drift across its marina.

Police and fire officials said the 85 foot (26 metre) yacht in Torquay, Devon, was "well alight" and the fire brigade said the vessel contained about 8,000 litres of diesel fuel, prompting local areas and nearby beaches to be cleared.

The police said no one had been injured in the fire and the yacht had since been secured after it broke free from its mooring. The police did not say who owned the yacht.

SOURCE: REUTERS

Peshawar: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf will move the supreme and high courts over  the "violence" comitted on the party workers and supporters by the government during its recent Azadi March to Islamabad, Imran Khan announced on Saturday.

The PTI chief told a presser that tear-gas shelling and other incidents of high handed tactics were allegedly used during the march, which ended in abrupt fashion on Thursday after an intense buildup all through the previous day.

He said the use of violence against his party's "peaceful protest" would be taken up in front of international human rights organisations as well.

"We are taking the petition in the Supreme Court on Monday and asking whether or not a peaceful protest in this country is a right of a democratic party. Tell us clearly if this harassment would continue if we stage a peaceful protest," he said.

Lashing out at the coalition government for its measures to clamp down on the Azadi March and the use of police to quell the people, Khan said they had information that they [rulers] set trees on fire to frame the PTI workers.

The ousted prime minister also but warne in the next phase, PTI would come with complete preparations.

The former prime minister said he would again give a call for march towards Islamabad if his democratic demand for general election were not met within the six-day deadline.

The PTI’s Core Committee discussed in detail various options as they would embark on the long march with full preparations, he said, adding the PTI would also approach the Supreme Court to seek its directions whether the people and political parties could hold peaceful protests.

Under the Constitution, he said, the people had the right to hold peaceful protests, but force was used against the participants of PTI march, with all the roads, highways and exit points of cities barricaded.

They would get lodged criminal cases against police officers involved in violence against peaceful protesters, he added.

He claimed that his government was in talks with Russia to purchase fuel at less than 30 percent of the market rate to give relief to the masses.