Several European countries have identified cases of Monkeypox (monkey pox), which could accelerate in Europe, estimated Friday a regional official of WHO.
The UK is registering new cases of Monkeypox every day, an official with the UK Health Security Agency said on Sunday, a subject the government says is taking “very seriously“. “We are detecting more cases every day“, said Susan Hopkins, the medical officer of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), told the BBC.
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Last week, twenty patients were identified and a new report will be published on Monday “with weekend numbers“said Susan Hopkins.
New UKHSA guidelines recommend contact cases most at risk of monkeypox patients self-isolate for three weeks and avoid contact with immunocompromised people, pregnant women and children under 12 years, SkyNews reported on Sunday.
Several European countries have identified cases of monkeypox, which could accelerate in Europe, said Friday a regional official of the World Health Organization (WHO). “In the cases we have seen so far in the UK the vast majority of people recover on their ownsaid Susan Hopkins. She described monkeypox as “a new infectious disease that is spreading in our community” with “cases that have no identified contact with an individual from West Africawhere the disease was previously present.
“Extremely low” risk for the population as a whole
The transmission is observedprimarily in individuals who identify as gay or bisexual or in men who have sex with menshe said, pointing out that the transmission can be explained by the “frequent close contact they may have“. She called for being alert to the slightest symptom while stressing that the risk for the population as a whole was “extremely low“.
While there is no vaccine against monkeypox, which is self-curing, a smallpox vaccine can be used to protect contact cases, Dr Hopkins explained.
Read also“Monkeypox”: a first case of infection confirmed in France
Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi said on the same TV channel that the government was taking the issue “very very seriouslyand that the UK had started buying doses of smallpox vaccine.
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