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CDC expresses concern about possibility of undetected monkeypox spread in U.K. - STAT
May 17, 2022 2 mins, 15 secs

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expressed concern Tuesday about an unusual outbreak of monkeypox in the United Kingdom, suggesting there appears to be at least some undetected transmission of the virus there and warning of the possibility that the outbreak could spread beyond U.K.

While one of the cases had recently traveled to Nigeria, where monkeypox is endemic, the others appear to have contracted the virus in the U.K.

None of the people infected domestically has any known connections with the traveler and the timing of the onset of the cases suggest he was not the source of those infections.

It is not known how any of these people contracted the virus.

The fact that there are two apparently unconnected clusters suggests there may be more than one chain of transmission in the country, each of which could contain additional cases that haven’t yet been detected.

Still, the evidence that there are likely some undetected cases is fueling worry about how much transmission there may be there, and whether the virus has traveled further afield.

“You have two clusters that have no link to travel or to other people who are known to be associated with a recognized outbreak.

Although human monkeypox cases outside Africa are rare, in recent years there has been a spate of exported cases to the United States (two in 2021), the U.K., Israel, and Singapore.

The four most recent cases were infected with the West African clade of monkeypox, which causes milder disease than the Central African clade, the UKHSA said.

There are no monkeypox-specific drugs or vaccines, but smallpox vaccine has been used in the past to help to stop monkeypox transmission, such as during a 2003 outbreak in the United States traced back to imported exotic animals.

In that outbreak, 71 people in six states contracted monkeypox.

Because of the discovery of cases among people who are gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men, public health authorities in the U.K.

are working to trace who the confirmed cases were in contact with before they became ill, to try to find the source of their infections

But they’re also seeking to identify contacts of the infected to see if they have transmitted the virus to others

But she did reveal that six people in the United States are being monitored because they were on the same flight as the man who traveled from Nigeria to the U.K

“Clearly the main problem we need to investigate is really knowing the real extent of monkeypox transmission in Africa and making sure that we invest in tools for prevention and treatment for people who are the most exposed in Africa,” he said

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