Belgium has recorded 671 confirmed cases of monkeypox since the start of the epidemic, according to the latest figures from the Sciensano institute published on Tuesday. The number of new cases seems to be stabilizing, since a week ago the total was 624 cases.
These are 360 cases in Flanders (54%), 236 in Brussels (35%) and 75 in Wallonia (11%), the vast majority of men.
Thirty-one people were hospitalized, but none required intensive care. No fatal cases have been reported. But this Tuesday evening, a case of monkeypox was reported in a child under three years old. “It’s very exceptional,” says Marc Van Ranst at the Nieuwsblad. “For reasons we don’t yet know, the virus appears to be less transmissible here than the versions we know from West Africa,” he adds.
For his part, Steven Van Gucht explains that “it is probably a child who was infected by his parents”. “We know from abroad that it very rarely happens that an infection is transmitted from parent to child. It is therefore not surprising that this also happens here. Children usually have mild infections. »