UK health authorities have said that a new strain of monkeypox linked to an individual diagnosed with the virus after recent travel to West Africa has been identified in the country.
According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), an individual who had recently travelled to west Africa has been admitted to the high consequence infectious diseases (HCID) unit at the Royal Liverpool University hospital in Merseyside with the strain.
“Preliminary genomic sequencing conducted by UKHSA indicates that this case does not have the current outbreak strain circulating in the UK,” the health body said.
According to British publication Guardian, it has not yet been revealed whether the case involves a new strain of monkeypox, or one that has previously been identified, albeit outside the current outbreak
“UKHSA and the NHS have well-established and robust infection control procedures for dealing with cases of imported infectious disease and these will be strictly followed. The risk to the general public is very low,” said Dr Sophia Maki, incident director at the UKHSA.
“We remind everyone who is planning to travel to west and central Africa to be alert for the symptoms of monkeypox and to call 111 if you have symptoms on your return.”
The new case comes as the total number of confirmed and probable cases of monkeypox in Britain touched 3,413 on Tuesday. Majority of these cases have been seen been in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.
