Seventh case of deadly mpox strain that kills one in 10 of those infected detected in UK
A SEVENTH case of a deadly mpox strain that kills one in 10 infected people has been detected in the UK.
A mutation of the disease, Clade 1b has been called the “most dangerous” variant yet.
Officials are uncertain how the individual became infected with the strain, although they had “recently” travelled back to the UK from Uganda, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Health chiefs however said they still consider the threat from the Clade 1b strain to the public as “low”.
Chief Medical Adviser at UKHSA Professor Susan Hopkins said: “The risk to the UK population remains low.
“Close contacts have been identified and offered appropriate advice in order to reduce the chance of further spread.”
Thousands of cases of the new mpox variant and hundreds of deaths have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR), which started seeing rapid spread of the disease last year.
The disease has also been widely circulating in Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya in recent months.
But the Clade 1b strain has reached other continents, with imported cases being detected in Europe and Asia.
Germany reported its first case of the mutant bug in October, following Sweden’s first case in August.
There have also been cases reported in Thailand, India and the US.
In October, it was reported that the disease had infected more than 25,000 people and was responsible for more than 1,000 deaths – with the the illness continuing to circulate since then.
Scientists have grown concerned by how fast the new variant of the disease is spreading, and by its high fatality rate.
This prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to name the increasing spread of the disease a global health emergency for the second time in two years.
The first UK case tested positive for the Clade 1b strain on October 29 in London and is believed the patient contracted the virus while on holiday in an African country affected by the outbreak.
The infected person was moved to the Royal Free Hospital in London, a high-consequence infectious diseases unit where people infected with Ebola have been treated in the past.
Three people in the patient’s household also contracted the disease but all four have now recovered.
What is mpox?
MPOX is a viral infectious disease.
It is a rare zoonosis, which means that it is transmitted to humans from an animal.
The disease primarily occurs in remote parts of Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
Mpox causes symptoms between five and 21 days after exposure.
The symptoms of monkeypox start similar to the flu. But then a rash breaks out, starting on the face.
Initial symptoms include:
- Fever
- Headache
- Muscle aches
- Backache
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Chills
- Exhaustion
An itchy and sometimes painful rash slowly appears one to three days into illness, starting with the face, palms of the hands and soles of the feet.
What starts as a seemingly harmless red rash – which looks like chickenpox – evolves into angry blisters that can last several days.
The inside of the mouth, genitals and lining of the eyes can also be affected by the nasty rash.
If the rash spreads to the eyes it can cause blindness.
While some patients may have only a few lesions, others will have thousands, the WHO says.
Symptoms generally last from 14 to 21 days, with severe cases relating to age, the extent of virus exposure, the patient’s health and the severity of complications.
Doctors and the public have been warned to keep an eye out for unexplained rashes.
In November, the fifth case was recorded in Leeds in a person who’d recently returned from Uganda.
The individual was treated at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, according to the UKHSA.
It added that the Leeds patient had no connection to the four previous cases detected in October that were all in the same household.
On January 20 this year, UKHSA announced the sixth case of the disease in an individual in East Sussex that had also recently returned from Uganda.
The agency confirmed it had no links to the previous cases identified in England.