Table 1.
Sociodemographic, clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the initial 139 confirmed cases in the Belgian MPX outbreak based on routine surveillance data
| Patient characteristics (N=139) | |
| Age (years) | |
| Median (IQR, range) | 38 (32–43; 20–62) |
| Time between symptom onset and clinical diagnosis (days) | |
| Median (IQR, range) | 6 (4–8; 0–21) |
| n | % | |
| Gender | ||
| Male | 139 | 100 |
| Sexual identity | ||
| Gay/bisexual | 132 | 95 |
| Heterosexual | 4 | 3 |
| Unknown | 3 | 2 |
| Reported symptoms* | ||
| General symptoms (fever, general malaise, fatigue, headache, myalgia) | 97 | 70 |
| Skin lesions in anogenital area and other body parts | 76 | 55 |
| Skin lesions only outside the anogenital area | 29 | 21 |
| Skin lesions only in the anogenital area | 26 | 19 |
| Localised lymphadenopathy | 40 | 29 |
| Generalised lymphadenopathy | 14 | 10 |
| Respiratory symptoms (cough, sore throat) | 3 | 2 |
| Unknown | 5 | 4 |
| Hospitalisation due to MPX | ||
| No | 131 | 94 |
| Yes | 8 | 6 |
| HIV status and PrEP use | ||
| HIV negative and on PrEP | 52 | 37 |
| HIV positive | 40 | 29 |
| HIV negative and not on PrEP/PrEP status unknown | 32 | 23 |
| Unknown HIV status | 15 | 11 |
| Suspected setting of exposure†‡ | ||
| Private setting | 45 | 32 |
| Festival | 41 | 30 |
| Cruising venue | 25 | 18 |
| Social event | 2 | 1 |
| Unknown | 26 | 19 |
| Suspected route of transmission | ||
| Sexual contact | 115 | 83 |
| Other person-to-person transmission | 4 | 3 |
| Unknown | 20 | 14 |
| Travel outside Belgium in the 21 days prior to symptom onset | ||
| No | 79 | 57 |
| Yes | 52 | 37 |
| Unknown | 8 | 6 |
| Contact of other confirmed MPX case | ||
| No | 66 | 48 |
| Yes | 28 | 20 |
| Unknown | 45 | 32 |
*Several symptoms could be reported by each case.
†Several suspected settings of exposure could be reported by each case.
‡The categories we used for exposure setting are based on the categories used for reporting to ECDC. The category ‘festival’ includes large events that were attended by cases where they did or did not have sexual contacts. The category ‘cruising venues’ includes visits at nightclubs, party, sauna or similar settings with having sexual contacts. The category ‘social event’ includes visits at bar, restaurant or other small events where there was no sexual contact reported. Other exposure settings reported by the cases in our study fit under the category ‘private setting’.
ECDC, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control; MPX, monkeypox; PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis.