The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced on Friday that a new strain of monkeypox had been identified in the country, with the individual suffering from the disease moved to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
The Telegraph cited the UKHSA as saying that the person, who had recently visited West Africa, had contracted a variant of the virus that is “genetically distinct” to the one currently driving the monkeypox outbreak in Britain.
According to the agency, contact tracing is underway to determine whether there are further infections as it remains unclear how the person caught monkeypox, and if they are a male or a female.
Sophia Maki, incident director at the UKHSA told the Telegraph that they are “working to contact the individuals who have had close contact with the case prior to confirmation of their infection, to assess them as necessary and provide advice”.
She added the UKHSA and the National Health Service (NHS) “have well established and robust infection control procedures for dealing with cases of imported infectious disease and these will be strictly followed and the risk to the general public is very low.”
“We remind everyone who is planning to travel to West and Central Africa to be alert for the symptoms of monkeypox and to call 111 if you have symptoms on your return,” the UKHSA incident director emphasized.
She spoke after the UKHSA said on Friday that a rise in monkeypox cases in Britain had been slowing since August 15, with health officials recording an average of 10 new infections per day last week.
Over 3,200 monkeypox cases have been registered in the UK since the first patient tested positive for the disease in early May.
Monkeypox is a rare viral disease that occurs predominately in Central and West Africa. The UKHSA says that most people recover in a few weeks and that early symptoms include rash, fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion.