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LONDON – Numerous cases of monkeypox in Britain have prompted authorities to offer a smallpox vaccine to some health workers and others who may have been exposed, as a handful more cases have been confirmed in parts of Europe.
Monkeypox is usually a mild viral disease characterized by symptoms of fever as well as a distinctive uneven rash.
There are two main strains: the Congo strain, which is heavier – with up to 10% mortality – and the West African strain, which has a mortality rate of about 1%.
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First identified in monkeys, the viral disease is usually spread by close contact and is largely found in West and Central Africa. It has rarely spread elsewhere, so this new flow of cases outside the continent has caused concern.
Nine cases of a West African strain have been reported in the United Kingdom so far.
There is no specific vaccine against monkeypox, but the smallpox vaccine offers some protection, said a spokesman for the United Kingdom’s Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The data show that vaccines used to kill smallpox are up to 85% effective against monkeypox, according to the World Health Organization.
“Those who needed the vaccine offered it,” the UKHSA spokesman added, without giving details on how many people have been vaccinated so far.
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Some countries have large stockpiles of the smallpox vaccine as part of a pandemic preparedness, including the United States.
Copenhagen-based pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic said on Thursday it had signed a contract with an undisclosed European country to supply its Imvanex smallpox vaccine in response to the monkeypox epidemic.
CASES
The first European case was confirmed on May 7 in an individual who returned to England from Nigeria, where monkeypox is endemic.
Since then, Portugal has registered 14 cases and Spain has confirmed seven. The United States and Sweden also reported one case each. Italian authorities have confirmed one case and suspect two more.
Several outbreaks of monkeypox in Africa were contained during the COVID pandemic, while the world’s attention was elsewhere, the leading African public health agency said on Thursday.
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“However, we are concerned about the many countries outside, especially in Europe, that are watching these monkeypox outbreaks,” said Ahmed Oguel Ouma, acting director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It would be very useful to share knowledge about the source of these outbreaks,” he said.
In the UK, meanwhile, the UKHSA stressed that recent cases in the country are mainly among men who identify themselves as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men.
This unusual jump in non-African cases may suggest a new means of spreading or altering the virus, said Anne Remoin, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA in California. “But all this has to be fixed.”
“This will not cause a national epidemic like COVID,” warned Jimmy Whitworth, a professor of international public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“But it’s a serious outbreak of a serious illness – and we need to take it seriously.” (Report by Jennifer Rigby and Natalie Grover in London; Twitter @NatalieGrover; additional reports by Anna Ringström in Stockholm and Agnieszka Flack in Milan; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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