Monkeypox: a new genetic type of virus identified in the UK

in total 47,751 confirmed cases worldwide in 90 countries, and 15 deaths recordedmonkeypox has been declared an international health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) out of concern about an outbreak in the authorities in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, The discovery of a new genetic variant of the virus in the UK raises alarms On the progress of this disease, the first case of infection in humans was recorded in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970. The disease has since become endemic in parts of West Africa, although outbreaks are known elsewhere, including the United States in 2003 and now in nearly 100 non-endemic countries.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) It reported that a person who had recently gone to West Africa had contracted a genetically distinct form of the virus that is causing the current outbreak in the UKwhich is the first country where a case was registered on May 7.

Current guidelines in that country state that if a monkeypox case is known to have been imported from West Africa, the individual should be admitted to a hospital’s high-impact infectious disease (HCID) unit for monitoring.

Therefore, the person was admitted to the HCID ward at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and Preliminary analysis revealed that the type of monkeypox virus he contracted is a different strain than that widely circulated in the United Kingdom.

Health officials are now tracking any close contacts the person may have. While, They did not report how the person contracted monkeypox and whether it was male or female, or more personal details.

“We are working to contact people who were in close contact with the case before they were confirmed infected, to test them when necessary and provide advice.”. As the doctor mentioned Sophia MickeyUKHSA Incident Manager, UKHSA and the NHS have well-established and robust infection control procedures in place to deal with imported infectious disease cases, these procedures will be followed closely and the risks to the general public will be extremely low.

And I remembered it “Everyone planning to travel to West and Central Africa should be aware of monkeypox symptoms and call 111 if they develop symptoms upon return.”

there Two major copies of monkeypox virus, Clade I and Clade II, formerly known as the Congo Basin and West African Clade, respectively. The former has a mortality rate of about one in ten, while the fatality rate for the latter is about one in 100.

Clade II has two well-known subsections, The current outbreak in the UK and worldwide is clade IIb, the less-lethal variant.

Whether the new case imported from West Africa is the first case of someone on British soil with the more deadly version of the disease is unknown at this time, but it remains a possibility until more detailed testing is done.

Further analysis is currently underway to see if this isolated case is Clade I, another Clade II subspecies, or a completely new clade.

Of the 3,279 cases of the disease reported in the UK so far, 79 were identified in the past week, compared to 126 the week before and 167 the week before.

With these numbers, The UK Health Services Authority (UKHSA) is confident the outbreak will slow in Britain even though the global number continues to rise, according to the World Health Organization.

While there is no specific vaccine against monkeypox, Some countries implement what is called “Circular Vaccination”which consists of applying the human smallpox vaccine to close contacts of infected people.

The UK is getting close to monkeypox vaccines after burning its stockpile of 50,000 doses. It is currently awaiting an exceptional delivery of 100,000 new doses from the manufacturer of the North Bavarian vaccines.

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