Portugal confirms 10 new monkeypox cases, Spain exceeds 50 total

LISBON (Reuters) -Portugal's DGS health authority confirmed 10 new cases of monkeypox in the country on Wednesday, bringing its total to 49, while in neighboring Spain the infection tally rose to 52 with four additional cases.

The two Iberian countries have been among the main hotspots of the recent outbreak of the usually mild viral disease outside its endemic areas in parts of west and central Africa.

DGS said all confirmed cases had been found in men, most under age 40. No one has been hospitalised.

Of Spain's total, 48 cases have been reported in the region of Madrid, most of them traced to an adult sauna that was shuttered last week, with four cases in the Canary Islands.

A few cases in both regions were linked to a 10-day Gay Pride festival in Gran Canaria, where 80,000 people gathered at the beginning of May, regional authorities in Madrid and Gran Canaria said.

Madrid has also identified several private residences where transmission of the monkeypox virus occurred, and some of them had been visited by people from Britain, said a spokesperson for the regional administration. British authorities were the first to report monkeypox cases in the recent outbreak on May 7.

Most of the infections detected globally so far in the outbreak have not been severe. Many, but not all, have been reported in men who have sex with men. Symptoms include fever and a distinctive bumpy rash.

(Reporting by Patricia Rua, Emma Pinedo and Andrei Khalip; Editing by Bill Berkrot)