Measles in developed countries appeared after two rave parties in Spain and Belgium?
A senior adviser to the World Health Organization described the unprecedented spread of measles in developed countries as a "random event" that can be explained by risky sexual behavior in two recent mass events in Europe.
In an interview with the World Agency, Dr. David Hayman, who heads the WHO emergency department, said the leading theory explaining the spread of the disease was sexual transmission between homosexuals and bisexuals at two rave parties in Spain and Belgium.
"We know that monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected. "Sexual contact already seems to determine that transmission," Hayman said.
This fact deviates significantly from the typical pattern of disease spread in Central and West Africa, where humans are infected mainly by animals such as wild rodents and primates, and epidemics do not spread beyond range.
To date, the WHO has registered more than 90 cases of measles in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Israel, France, Switzerland, the United States and Australia. There are already 30 confirmed cases in the Spanish capital, Madrid.