NEARLY 100 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed on the popular holiday islands of Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Fuerteventura.
Authorities are trying to halt an outbreak that has exploded across the Canary Islands – a tourist hotspot that attracts millions of visitors every year.
The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands said a total of 96 cases have been confirmed.
Gran Canaria has recorded 65 cases, while Tenerife has confirmed 29 and Fuerteventura has detected two.
Another two suspected cases were detected yesterday, officials said.
They are all experiencing mild symptoms and are isolating at home, El Dia reports.
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It comes after monkeypox cases in Spain and Italy were traced to a festival in Gran Canaria in May attended by 80,000 revellers.
Authorities investigated the festival after it was linked with a number of cases in Madrid, Tenerife and Italy.
The Canaria Pride festival, held in the town of Maspalomas between May 5 and 15, became a hotspot for the monkeypox outbreak.
The massive party was attended by over 80,000 people, including three Italian men who later tested positive for the virus.
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Back in May, doctors warned that number will rise significantly as the virus spreads through Europe and as far as the US, Canada and Australia.
There are now more than 15,000 monkeypox cases worldwide.
Cases have now been detected in Israel, Norway, Thailand, Australia, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and Canada.
Experts have warned that although monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease, it could be passed on through skin-to-skin contact during sex.
Many known patients are gay men who were tested after going to STI clinics, the WHO said.
Health chiefs warned gay and bisexual men to be on the lookout for new unexplained rashes.
In the UK, the NHS is stepping up its vaccination programme against monkeypox in London as more supplies of a jab come on stream.
On Tuesday, the UK Health Security Agency said it had procured 100,000 more doses of an effective vaccine as monkeypox cases continue to rise.
As of July 18, there were 2,137 confirmed cases in the UK, with 2,050 in England and the majority in London.
Steve Russell, NHS director of vaccinations, said: "While the risk of monkeypox remains very low and nearly every case we have seen so far has recovered quickly, over 2,000 people have been affected by the virus.
"On the whole, the cases we are seeing are among gay and bisexual men or men who have sex with men, with a significant number coming from London and so it is vital that those who are most likely to get the virus get vaccinated as quickly as possible."
US officials have also ordered more than 100,000 monkeypox vaccine doses – with several million more on order for the months ahead.
The WHO's emergency committee met on Thursday to consider for the second time within weeks whether to declare monkeypox a global crisis.
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African officials said they are already treating the continent's epidemic as an emergency.
But experts said the mild version of monkeypox in Europe, North America and beyond makes an emergency declaration unnecessary – even if the virus can't be stopped.
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