Madrid's senior health official said on Monday that the Spanish capital has recorded 30 confirmed cases so far.Įnrique Ruiz Escudero said authorities are investigating possible links between a recent Gay Pride event in the Canary Islands, which drew some 80,000 people, and cases at a Madrid sauna. 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. The four confirmed cases in Germany have been linked to exposure at "party events including on Gran Canaria and in Berlin, where sexual activity took place," it said. 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.Ī German government report to lawmakers, obtained by the AP, said it expected to see further cases and that the risk of catching monkeypox "mainly appears to lie with sexual contacts among men." "We know monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission," said Heymann.