The Czech Republic, Austria and Slovenia have reported the first cases of smallpox, health officials said on Tuesday.
In the Czech Republic, the disease was detected in a man at the Prague Military University Hospital, according to Pavel Dlouhy, head of the Czech Society of Infectious Diseases.
“It was just a matter of time, we’ve been waiting for it for days,” Dlouhy told AFP.
The Czech National Institute of Public Health said in a statement on Tuesday that the sick Czech had shown symptoms of the disease after returning from a music festival in Antwerp, Belgium in early May.
In Austria, it has been confirmed that a man, who was hospitalized in Vienna on Sunday with symptoms of smallpox, including fever, contracted the disease, health officials in the capital said.
In Slovenia, it has also been confirmed that a man, who developed symptoms after returning from the Canary Islands, had smallpox, according to health authorities.
In recent days, several European and American countries, such as Britain, France and the United States, have reported cases of the rare virus, which is endemic in parts of Africa.
Medical authorities have said, however, that the risk of the disease spreading is low.