WHO says local transmissions outside Africa seen in UK

The two people who contracted the virus live “in the same household as a person who tested positive shortly after traveling to several African countries,” explains the WHO.

Two people contracted the new variant of the Mpox virus in the United Kingdom after being in contact with a patient who returned from Africa, making them the first local transmissions outside Africa, the World Health Organization announced on Tuesday, November 5. health (WHO).

These two people live “in the same household as a person who tested positive shortly after traveling to several African countries”specifies the WHO, adding that these are “the first locally transmitted cases in Europe and even the first outside Africa” since August 2024.

At that time, the organization had raised its highest level of alert internationally over the resurgence of Mpox cases in Africa. “The general risk to the population of the UK and the region remains low, but local transmission of clade 1b Mpox should prompt health authorities to strengthen their surveillance measures and prepare for rapid contact tracing of cases suspects and confirmed”Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said in a statement.

The last two patients are being treated at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London, the UK Health Security Agency said, warning that more cases could emerge in the same household. A week earlier, the British agency had detected a first case of infection of this new variant in London. Others had previously been detected in Germany, Sweden and several Asian countries.

Previously called monkeypox, Mpox is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans but is also transmitted between humans, causing fever, muscle pain and skin lesions. For several months, a new epidemic has affected Africa, with the highest infection figures found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Nigeria.