A leading British medic has warned that Ireland needs to brace itself for the imminent arrival of monkeypox.
More and more cases of the disease are being diagnosed every day across the Irish Sea.
It has been confirmed in 14 countries already, with the UK health authorities admitting yesterday there have been at least 20 cases found.
Austria and Israel also both recorded their first infections over the weekend.
Michael Head, a specialist in global health at the University of Southampton, believes it is likely already on the way here to Ireland.
He said that they are now seeing evidence of “community transmission” in the UK with 20 cases identified “and likely more to come... it is a nasty virus”.
Mr Head was speaking on RTE’s This Week when he said monkeypox is a contagious disease that will require contract tracing again, same as with Covid.
He said: “The public health team will be doing contract tracing, trying to find as many close contacts as possible and giving them the
appropriate public health advice.
“But to the wider general public, the risks are very, very low indeed, so I hope that can be reassuring.”
Mr Head also warned about the death rate from monkeypox, which is predicted at one in 100.
He added: “The case fatality rate that we’ve seen with previous outbreaks, predominantly in sub Saharan Africa has been about 1%.
“I think most of the reporting that I’ve seen in relation to this outbreak so far has been that it is mild, which might also be a reason for the wider transmission, because if people have milder cases they’re more likely to get out and about.”
In the meantime, the HSE has set up a special multi-disciplinary team to prepare the country for the arrival of monkeypox.
Concerns about monkeypox are growing globally, with US President Joe Biden warning yesterday that it is something “everyone should be worried about.”
The US leader was speaking to reporters from South Korea, where he said: “It is something that everybody should be pretty concerned about.
“We’re working on it hard to figure out what we do and what vaccine, if any, may be available for it.
“It is a concern in a sense that if it were to spread, it will be consequential.”
It comes as Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, revealed that the latest Covid variant of concern, another version of Omicron, is already on our shores.
Dr Holohan said two cases of a newly classified Covid-19 variant of concern have been confirmed in Ireland.
On May 12, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reclassified two sub-lineages of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, BA.4 and BA.5, from variants of interest to variants of concern.
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