France, Belgium and Germany have reported their first cases of monkeypox, joining Australia, and several European and North American nations in detecting the disease, endemic in parts of Africa.

Monkeypox was identified in a 29-year-old man in the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, who had not recently returned from a country where the virus is circulating, France’s health authorities said on Friday.

Separately, the German armed forces’ microbiology institute said it had confirmed the virus in a patient who had developed skin lesions – a symptom of the disease.