British health officials have reported the country’s first confirmed human case of the Clade Ib mpox virus, a new strain spreading widely across Africa.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed the case on Wednesday, emphasising that the “risk to the UK population remains low.”
The infected individual recently travelled to regions in Africa where the virus has been spreading, and public health authorities are now actively working to contain any further transmission by contacting those who may have been exposed.
The UKHSA is conducting widespread contact tracing to minimise any potential spread and is collaborating with healthcare organisations to provide necessary testing and vaccinations. Dr Susan Hopkins, UKHSA’s chief medical adviser, stated that the agency is following established protocols to investigate the infection’s origin and to determine if there are additional cases linked to this one.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is transmitted through close physical contact with an infected person and manifests with symptoms such as skin rashes or lesions, fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy, and swollen lymph nodes.
In severe cases, mpox can lead to complications or death, although vaccinations are available. Britain encountered a prior outbreak of mpox in 2022, recording 1,517 confirmed cases, particularly in London and among men who have sex with men.
Clade Ib mpox, the newly detected strain, is currently causing significant outbreaks in central and eastern Africa, differing from the variant that spread in the UK last year.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has documented 45,674 suspected and 9,298 confirmed cases of mpox across several African nations this year, leading to more than 1,000 deaths, primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In September, African health officials confirmed that Clade Ib had extended its reach to non-endemic countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Thailand, and Sweden.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control confirmed that Germany had detected a case of Clade Ib mpox on 18 October. British healthcare professionals were not surprised by the virus’s arrival in the UK, acknowledging its widespread circulation in Africa and its increasing presence outside the continent.
Dr Brian Ferguson, an immunology expert from the University of Cambridge, noted that this case was anticipated and may not be an isolated occurrence in Britain. Prof Jonathan Ball, deputy vice-chancellor and molecular virology professor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, highlighted the need for monitoring the virus while asserting that countries with advanced healthcare infrastructure are better positioned to prevent large-scale outbreaks.
In preparation for potential mpox cases involving Clade Ib, Britain recently secured over 150,000 doses of the mpox vaccine from Bavarian Nordic, aiming to strengthen the country’s defences against the virus.
