A child in intensive care in a London hospital is among 20 cases of monkey pox identified by health authorities in Britain, according to the Telegraph.
On Friday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced 11 more cases, bringing the total number of patients in the country to 20.
Figures for the 11 new patients were not released, and of the previous nine cases, six were known to involve gay or bisexual men.
The Telegraph also reveals that at a seminar in London in June 2019, scientists from Cambridge University, UCL London, the School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine and other universities, as well as experts from the UK Ministry of Defence and Public Health England (now UKHSA) had warned that monkeypox could potentially "fill the epidemiological gap" left by the eradication of smallpox since the 1980s.
Experts had stressed the need for a new generation of vaccines and treatments, citing outbreaks of the disease in 2003 and 2018 (in Britain, Israel and Singapore).
In a statement to Sky News, Dr Claire Dusnap, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, estimated that "we will see a significant increase in diagnoses next week" and potentially "really significant numbers in the next two or three weeks".
She commented that what worries her is that there are now cases all over Europe, "so we're already spreading and circulating in the general population."
Dr. Dusnap added that she fears that additional attention to monkeypox in sexual health clinics will deprive services to other patients, describing a picture reminiscent of the decline in health care provision to patients due to coronavirus.
UKHSA chief Dr Susan Hopkins told the BBC that newer figures on the number of cases would be released on Monday and that now her agency was detecting "more cases on a daily basis".
Dr Hopkins, however, avoided confirming the Telegraph's report that one carrier was being treated in intensive care, saying she would not comment on individual cases.
Professor David Heyman, an infectious disease expert from the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicines, said "what seems to be happening now is that (the virus) has crept into the population as a sexually transmitted disease, a genital disease, and is being transmitted like sexually transmitted diseases, which has enhanced its spread around the world."
He noted that the main mode of transmission is through close contact and for this reason some countries have already started administering the smallpox vaccine to health workers who treat cases of monkeypox.
Source: CNA
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