A child has been taken to intensive care at a hospital in London after they were diagnosed with monkeypox, as another 11 cases were confirmed in one day.
The viral infection is now transmitting in the community, rather than just being found among people who have returned from overseas, health chiefs have warned.
But the health secretary Sajid Javid reassured people that most cases are ‘mild’ and the Government is getting more vaccines that are effective against monkeypox.
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Since the first cases in this country last month, it has emerged that back in 2019, scientists from a range of hospitals and universities, as well as from the MoD and Public Health England, warned that monkeypox could ‘fill the ecological niche’ left behind by smallpox - which was eradicated in this country by generations of effective vaccines.
Now, though, scientists estimate only around a third of people are actually immune against smallpox - and therefore monkeypox - which is a different variation of the virus endemic in parts of Africa.
No further details of the new patients, including the child, have been released, but according to the Sunday Telegraph, a young child is among those currently being treated. The UK Health Security Agency issued images of what monkey pox looks like, as the number of cases of the virus has reached 145 in 13 different countries - which is described as the biggest outbreak outside of Africa.
Dr Claire Dewsnap, the president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, said she expects a ‘significant’ rise in infections in the next two to three weeks. UKHSA confirmed that a disproportionate number of the early cases have been in gay and bisexual men. “
“Our response is really critical here,” she told Sky News. “There is going to be more diagnoses over the next week. How many is hard to say. ‘What worries me the most is there are infections across Europe, so this has already spread. ‘It’s already circulating in the general population. Getting on top of all those people’s contacts is a massive job.”
Experts say monkeypox is hard to transmit - harder than chicken pox, for example. It requires very close or skin-to-skin contact with someone with the monkeypox rash, which could well be why there is a disproportionate number of early cases in the gay community.
Dr Bharat Pankhania, from the University of Exeter, said no one knew exactly why the rare virus is spreading now, but urged people to be ‘cautiously careful’. “Without a doubt there is community transmission of monkeypox here in the UK and elsewhere,” the expert in infectious disease control told ITV News.
The UKHSA boss Dr Susan Hopkins confirmed there is no direct vaccine for monkeypox, but a third generation small pox vaccine is effective, and that is what they are giving people who have come into contact with those infected.
"We would recommend to anyone who’s having changes in sex partners regularly or having close contact with individuals that they don’t know to come forward if they develop a rash," Dr Hopkins said, adding that the UKHSA would be reporting the number of cases again on Monday.
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