Monkeypox in England May Have Been Spreading for Years, Expert Explains

KOMPAS.com – Virus monkeypox or monkey pox It has likely been spreading at low rates in the UK for years, but the disease was only detected last month.

This is the first time that a monkeypox-related virus has spread locally outside of central and western Africa, where monkey smallpox become endemic in the country.

As of 25 May 2022, more than 200 people in 20 countries have been confirmed to have monkeypox, with around 106 of those cases in the UK.

Read also: What is the difference between smallpox and monkey pox?

Launching the gov.uk page, a monkeypox case was confirmed in the UK on 7 May 2022. The patient has a travel history from Nigeria, which is believed to have contracted the infection in that country.

The infection can spread when a person comes into close contact with an infected person, but there is a very low risk of transmission to the general population.

The UK’s first confirmed patient is being treated in the infectious disease specialist unit at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London.

Officials say it is possible that local transmission of monkeypox has occurred in the UK for two to three years, for example four cases of monkeypox were reported in the UK in 2018-2019 in people who had traveled to Nigeria, while three other cases from a similar trip were confirmed in 2018. 2021.

“Hypothetically, transmission of the virus increased from this low transmission rate when it coincidentally entered a population that is currently increasing transmission,” said Dr. David Heymann, infectious disease epidemiologist and advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) as quoted from Live Science, Tuesday (31/5/2022).

However, further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.

The genetic sequence of the virus sample monkeypox in this outbreak shows similarities to the species of monkeypox reported in the UK, Israel and Singapore in 2018-2019.

Read also: Monkeypox transmission, UK advises at-risk groups to isolate for 21 days

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