UK: 73 new monkeypox cases, biggest outbreak outside Africa
LONDON (AP) — British health officials reported 73 more monkeypox cases on Monday, raising the total to more than 300 across the country. To date, the U.K. has the biggest identified outbreak of the disease beyond Africa, with the vast majority of infections in gay and bisexual men.
Health officials warn that anyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, is potentially at risk of catching monkeypox if they are in close contact with a patient, their clothing or their bed sheets.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization said more than two dozen countries that haven’t previously identified monkeypox cases reported 780 cases, a more than 200% jump in cases since late May. No monkeypox deaths outside of Africa have yet been identified.
The U.N. health agency said most cases in Europe and elsewhere have been spotted in sexual health clinics and “have involved mainly, but not exclusively, men who have sex with men.”
So far this year, there have been more than 1,400 monkeypox cases and 63 deaths in four countries where the disease is endemic — Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo and Nigeria — according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Genetic sequencing of the virus has not yet shown any direct link to the outbreak outside Africa.
WHO said the sudden and unexpected detection of monkeypox in numerous countries “suggests that there might have been undetected transmission for some unknown duration of time followed by recent amplifier events." Last month, a leading adviser to WHO said the outbreak in Europe and beyond was likely spread by sex at two recent raves in Spain and Belgium.
WHO estimated the risk posed by monkeypox to global health was “moderate,” saying this was the first time that so many cases and clusters were reported across the...
