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Infections in UK more than double to 20
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it is holding daily monkeypox meetings as the virus continues to spread worldwide.
A spokesperson for the organisation told The Independent it is convening “a number of meetings related to monkeypox on a daily basis” involving experts from affected countries, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and technical advisory groups.
This includes a meeting on Friday involving the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards with Pandemic and Endemic Potential (STAG IH).
The outbreak is now said to be the “largest and most widespread ever seen in Europe”, where infections have surpassed 100.
Cases have now been confirmed in countries including the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, France and Italy and Germany.
Fabian Leendertz, from the Robert Koch Institute, described the outbreak as an “epidemic” but said it was “unlikely” to last long.
The blog is now closed for the evening and no more updates will be posted until tomorrow
Scotland’s chief medical officer has told people to “take a breath and calm down” over cases of monkeypox in England.
Speaking to STV News on Friday evening, Professor Jason Leitch reassured viewers there are no cases of the virus in Scotland.
Prof Leitch said: “This is a known disease we know quite a lot about. Occasionally they get out of west and central Africa - to the US, to Europe, we’ve had cases here before.
“Usually if you interrupt the trains of transmission, you can knock this disease on its head.”
The infection, while unpleasant, is often mild and many recover within two to four weeks of having it.
Prof Leitch added: “There are no cases in Scotland so the first and most important thing is: everybody just needs to stop, take a breath and calm down.
“It’s still quite small numbers. What happens is, it’s quite an infectious virus, not as infectious or as airborne as Covid and things we’re used to like flu, but it can move from person to person.
“You need to be pretty close, it’s droplet spread, so it’s families, it’s sexual partners, it’s people who are in very close proximity.
“You get general fever, the kind of viral disease, but you also get a rash. If that happens or if you’re concerned, you should contact a health professional.”
Health authorities in Spain reported on Friday 24 new confirmed cases of monkeypox, mainly in the Madrid region where the regional government closed a sauna linked to the majority of infections.
The total tally in Spain has now reached 30, while 23 confirmed cases have now been identified in neighbouring Portugal, where nine new cases were detected on Friday.
Madrid authorities have been working on tracing the cases mainly from a single outbreak in a sauna, regional health chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero told reporters on Friday.
“The Public Health Department will carry out an even more detailed analysis... to control contagion, cut the chains of transmission and try to mitigate the transmission of this virus as much as possible,” he said.
The Extremadura region confirmed its first case on Friday afternoon.
Another 18 suspected cases are under investigation in Spain, 15 in the Madrid region, two in the Canary Islands and one in Andalusia, the health authorities said.
Additional cases of monkeypox are likely to be detected in the United States but the risk to the general public is low at this time, a senior US administration official said on Friday.
The first case of monkeypox this year in the country was confirmed on Wednesday by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The infected man had recently traveled to Canada.
“It is likely that there could be some additional cases detected in the coming days as surveillance and testing begin to work more actively to look for cases,” the official told reporters.
“There appears to be a low risk to the general public at this time,” the official added.
Monkeypox, which mostly occurs in west and central Africa, is a rare viral infection similar to human smallpox, though milder.
It was first recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1970s. The number of cases in West Africa has increased in the last decade.
Symptoms include fever, headaches and skin rashes starting on the face and spreading to the rest of the body.
Eleven more cases of monkeypox have been found in the UK, health chiefs say, bringing the total to 20.
The World Health Organisation is holding meetings with experts in all countries with outbreaks, including several other European nations that have at least 100 cases altogether.
The UK’s tally more than doubled on Friday, from the nine previously identified.
The initial recent case was diagnosed in someone who had returned to Britain from Nigeria, but the cases are not all in one cluster.
UK health chiefs say they expect cases to rise in the coming days, with more diagnosed in the community.
Jane Dalton and Rebecca Thomas report.
A total of 20 people in UK now infected as Australia and seven other countries record outbreaks
A patient with monkeypox was confirmed in the Netherlands for the first time, the government’s health agency said on Friday, adding more people may have become infected with the disease.
“After the weekend, we will give an update on any new infections that have become known”, the National Insitute for Health (RIVM) said in a statement.
More than 100 cases of monkeypox, a viral infection more common to west and central Africa, have been reported in Europe this week, with German officials describing the outbreak as the largest ever in the region.
Health officials have issued an “urgent” call to virologists to help the “rapidly scaling-up” response to the monkeypox outbreak, The Independent has learned, as 11 new cases are confirmed in Britain.
It comes as World Health Organisation reportedly held an emergency meeting over a “worrying” rise of the disease globally.
In an email seen by The Independent, UK Health Security Agency head of laboratory business and operations, Louise Forster, said: “We are looking for regional ID, microbiology or virology consultants to join the Monkey Pox clinical cell. As you are aware this is a national enhanced incident with a very high priority response, which is rapidly scaling up and we urgently need as many volunteers as possible.”
Rebecca Thomas has the latest.
Exclusive: UK’s monkeypox repsonse is ‘rapidly scaling up’ as officals call for urgent volunteers
US officials are rushing to buy 13 million doses of Monkeypox vaccines after the first case of the rare infection was confirmed on US soil and a new possible case has been detected in New York.
The US government has placed an $119m order with Bavarian Nordic for the Jynneos vaccine, which is effective against both the Monkeypox virus and Smallpox, the biotech company revealed.
A further $180m is also ready and waiting to buy even more vaccines if or when it is needed, altogether enabling the country to get 13 million doses into the arms of the American people.
The move comes as the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene confirmed it is investigating a possible Monkeypox case in the Big Apple.
Six other possible cases are also being investigated on US soil after a Massachusetts man became the first confirmed case this week
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Monkeypox continues to spread across the globe
Brian W J Mahyvia/CDC/Reuters
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