The UK is expected to face a "significant rise" in monkeypox cases “over this next week”, Claire Dewsnap, president of The British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) told Sky News.
“Our response is really critical here. There are 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,” Dewsnap underscored.
She added that some BASHH staff have received the smallpox vaccine, which can be effective against monkeypox, and that talks are taking place about giving doses to "potential risk groups".
The BASHH head apparently referred to the UK Health Security Agency previously saying that a notable proportion of recent cases in Britain and Europe have been found in gay and bisexual men.
Dewsnap’s remarks followed the World Health Organisation (WHO) announcing that monkeypox cases have already been registered in at least ten European nations, including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the Netherlands, as well as the US, Canada, Israel and Australia. A total of 120 confirmed or suspected cases have been reported by the UN health agency, including 20 in the UK.
The disease, first discovered in monkeys, spreads through close contact and has only rarely been seen outside of Africa, which is why the current outbreak has caused concern in the medical community.
Scientists, however, do not reportedly expect the outbreak to turn into a pandemic like COVID-19, given that the monkeypox virus does not spread as easily as SARS-COV-2.
Monkeypox is often a minor viral infection characterised by fever and a unique bumpy rash. Although there is no specific vaccine for the disease, the WHO says that the vaccines used to eradicate smallpox are up to 85% effective against monkeypox. Most people recover within several weeks and monkeypox has only been fatal in rare cases, according to the WHO.