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Britain has daily infections with monkeypox unrelated to travel to West Africa, where the disease is endemic, an official with Britain’s health safety agency said on Sunday.
“We have an unidentified case of contact with a West African individual, which we have seen before in this country,” said Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
“We are detecting more cases every day,” he added during an interview with the BBC.
UKHSA said new figures would be released on Monday, having recorded 20 cases on Friday.
Hopkins declined to confirm reports that one person was in intensive care, but said the outbreak was concentrated in urban areas, among gay or bisexual men.
“The risk to the general population is still very low at this point, and I think people need to be vigilant,” he said, adding that for most adults, symptoms would be “relatively mild.”
The UK sounded the alarm on May 7, with someone who had recently traveled to Nigeria. Other countries in Europe and the United States have reported cases.
Monkeypox can be transmitted through contact with skin lesions and droplets from contaminated people, as well as through shared objects such as bedding and towels.
Symptoms are similar, to a lesser extent, those observed in the past in subjects with smallpox: fever, headache, muscle and back pain during the first five days.
A rash (on the face, palms, soles of the feet), lesions, pustules, and eventually scabs then appear.
According to the WHO, symptoms last between 14 and 21 days.
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