The total number of confirmed cases of monkeypox in the UK has risen to 20, with 11 new cases having been reported. The first case in the current outbreak was confirmed on May 6 and now the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is urgently looking for the source of the outbreak.
However, this is not the first time monkeypox has been reported in the UK, with three cases also reported in 2021 and another in 2018. These infections are rarely seen in the UK and are overwhelmingly linked to international travel from endemic areas, including parts of west and central Africa.
On May 18 five cases of monkeypox were reported in Portugal, with investigations into 20 further suspected cases. On the same day, the Spanish health authorities reported eight suspected cases in men who have sex with men.
Read more: Monkeypox in the UK - the eight symptoms you need to watch out for
This is the largest monkeypox outbreak ever seen in Europe. It is not known if the cases are linked.
Monkeypox, as the name suggests, was first found in laboratory monkeys in the late 1950s. However, scientists aren’t sure if monkeys are the main carriers of the virus, so the name may be a bit of a misnomer.
The latest thinking is that the main carrier is probably smaller animals, such as rodents. But unlike Coronavirus, monkeypox does not spread easily from human to human.
It typically requires interaction with animals which carry the virus, or being in very close contact with infected people or with 'fomites' - such as contaminated clothes, towels or furniture. Also, unlike COVID, monkeypox is not known to spread asymptomatically.
Nevertheless, the evidence on monkeypox is thin, and the current outbreaks will provide new knowledge around its impact and transmission.
Monkeypox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox, but is less transmissible. People who catch it typically develop a fever and a distinctive rash and blisters. The disease is usually self-limiting, with symptoms disappearing after a few weeks.
That said, monkeypox can cause severe illness, with outbreaks typically showing a case-fatality rate (the proportion of people with the disease who die from it) of between 1% and 15%, with severe disease and death more likely among children.
The UKHSA says that some cases in the May 2022 outbreak cannot be explained by recent international travel, suggesting that there has probably been some “community transmission”. Four of the seven cases are in people who identify as gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. A UKHSA epidemiologist tweeted that this is “highly suggestive of spread in sexual networks”. The cases in Spain may also fall under similar consideration.
So the transmission here may be a little unusual compared with previous outbreaks. While there is a lot we don’t know about monkeypox, we do know the virus can be transmitted via close contact, for example, including prolonged skin-to-skin contact.
This article is republished under a Creative Commons license from a piece in The Conversation by Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health, University of Southampton. Read the original here.
