The tests confirmed that a 35-year-old man who was taken to hospital in Vienna on Sunday has suspicion of the disease had contracted monkeypox.
The ORF learned from Nina Brenner-Küng, a spokeswoman for the Vienna Health Service in Vienna, that the patient’s laboratory results confirmed that he was smallpox positive. Further testing is needed to identify which type of smallpox has been attacked.
The man’s condition is otherwise stable, with mild flu-like symptoms in addition to his skin lesions. The patient was isolated.
More than a dozen countries around the world have already confirmed the emergence of the viral disease. The number of suspicious cases crawled above 50, the WHO said on Friday. The World Health Organization has also warned that more cases are likely to be reported soon. So far, infected people have been found in nine European countries, as well as the United States, Canada and Australia. Monkeypox has previously occurred mainly in remote parts of Central and West Africa.
The pathogen, a rare viral infection first discovered in monkeys, originates in the tropics of West and Central Africa and can be spread through very close contact and sexual contact.
The disease is usually mild, with most patients recovering within a few weeks without treatment. However, it can be fatal for people with weaker immune systems, with the current strain causing the epidemic killing one in 100 people infected.
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