The number of monkeypox cases in the UK will "likely" continue to rise and could turn deadly, a top academic has warned. But Professor Jimmy Whitworth says a lockdown situation - like the ones enforced during the Covid crisis - will not be needed as long as the spread of disease is brought under control.
Eight more cases of monkeypox were identified in England on Thursday, health officials said, as the first cases of the virus were recorded in Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the new cases bring the England total since May 7 to 85, and the UK total to 90. Two further cases were confirmed in Scotland, Public Health Scotland said, bringing the number of cases north of the border to three.
UKHSA teams have been tracing contacts of those with a confirmed case and are advising those at highest risk to isolate for 21 days. People with unusual rashes or lesions, particularly if they have had a new sexual partner, have been urged to limit their contact with others and contact NHS 111 or their local sexual health clinic.
The sudden spread of the virus since it was first confirmed in England at the start of the month has sparked fears that another lockdown could be enforced to bring the virus under control. But the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Professor Jimmy Whitworth says he doesn't think that those types of restrictions will "ever be needed" to combat monkeypox.
He told GB News : "I am hopeful that we will get it under control before that (a lockdown) would ever be considered. Monkeypox can be a serious disease. With this West African strain, about one percent of cases may die.
"It is likely that the number of cases will continue to increase until we are able to control transmission which requires identification of all the cases and their contacts. The final size of the outbreak will depend on how quickly we can control transmission."
A variety of theories have been put forward to suggest how monkeypox may have spread widely as part of this latest wave, with some cases linked to a Belgian fetish festival and a superspreader event at an adult sauna in Madrid. Prof Whitworth said: "Monkeypox is endemic in west and central Africa, where it spreads to humans from small mammals.
"It will have arrived in Europe and the USA through travellers from west Africa who had been exposed to the infection, travelled while incubating the infection, and then developed the disease once they had arrived. This is the first outbreak of monkeypox to occur outside Africa with widespread multinational distribution and dozens of cases.
"There is community spread and no obvious links between all of the cases. That means there is undocumented transmission occurring."
