Smallpox could have a “huge impact” on access to sexual health services in the UK, a leading doctor has warned.
Dr Claire Dusnap, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, expressed concern about how the virus could affect services, as staff who come into contact with sufferers are forced to isolate themselves.
She told the BBC that clinic staff had already come under significant pressure before the monkeypox was identified. “This is already stretching the workforce and will have a huge impact if staff have to be isolated, if they are in close contact with someone who is infected,” she said.
As of Friday, there were 20 confirmed cases of the disease in the United Kingdom, and nine other countries outside Central and West Africa also reported outbreaks.
Monkeypox, first discovered in 1958, can be transmitted from person to person through close physical contact.
Dusnap told BBC Radio 4: “I am not so concerned about the infection and its consequences for people, but I am concerned about our ability to maintain good sexual health services and access for all while we are still managing this new infection.
She called for “adequate funding” for sexual health services, which she said have suffered budget cuts over the past decade, adding that the ability to see people quickly is important in tackling the infection.
“Over the last 10 years, there has been a significant reduction in funding from the public health budget, and this has had a direct impact on the level of staff, which means we have less capacity to see people,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“We used to be able to see people within 48 hours of being contacted – this is really important because it reduces the window in which people have an infection [while] they do not know they have an infection and can transmit it to humans.
“So, the speed with which we see people is really critical, and the oncoming monkey pattern shows us this more than ever.
She said proper funding would mean that they could “ensure that people can enter quickly and therefore we can reduce the risk of infecting other people”.
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Meanwhile, Professor Sir Peter Horby, director of the Institute for Pandemic Sciences at Oxford University, described the outbreak of monkeypox as an “unusual situation” because the virus is spreading to communities outside Central and West Africa.
“It is transmitted through close human-to-human contact and we have not seen it very contagious in the past,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
“The unusual thing about what we’re seeing now is that we’re seeing a show that’s happening in the community in Europe and now in other countries, so it’s an unusual situation where we seem to have introduced the virus, but now we have an ongoing transmission within certain communities. “
He added: “There seems to be some element of sexual transmission, perhaps only in very close contact between people and skin lesions, because most of the current cases are found in gays and bisexual men.
“So it’s very important to understand that if people have unusual skin lesions, they’re really looking for attention quickly so we can control it.
“The important thing is that we are interrupting the transmission, and this is not being established in the human population in Europe.”
The UK Health Security Agency said the infection could be transmitted through “close contact or contact with clothing or bedding used by a person with monkeypox”.
However, it is added that the virus is not usually easily spread among humans and the risk to the UK population “remains low”.
Symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion.
A rash can develop, often starting in the face and then spreading to other parts of the body, including the genitals. The rash then changes and goes through various stages – and may resemble chickenpox – before finally forming scabs, which later fall off.
According to the NHS, the symptoms are usually mild and clear up in “two to four weeks”, although severe cases can sometimes occur.
The UK government has said it is stockpiling smallpox vaccines to help prevent monkeypox.
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