Monkeypox is a very rare viral illness, normally seen only in some central and western African countries. The first ever recorded case in the UK was in 2018.
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/all-topic ... fessionalsHuman monkeypox was reported outside of Africa for the first time in 2003 when a MPX outbreak occurred in the United States. Importation of the disease was traced back to rodents from Ghana shipped to Texas, US and housed close to prairie dogs upon importation. All human cases of MPX fell ill following contact with the infected prairie dogs.
As of yesterday 7 men have it in the UK. 4 of them at least had not traveled to Africa.
Now Spain and Portugal are reporting cases. Eight in Spain and five definite plus 15 suspected cases in Portugal. A common factor at the moment among some patients is men having sex with men, so alerts are issued for the gay community. One locus of infection is a family unit, so closely-shared living quarters would be a likely factor there, eg shared bed linen. Eating bush meat, animal bites/scratches, mother to baby transmission are all routes that have been documented in the past.
In one of the African strains there is a 10% fatality rate, and it is especially severe for children. So far the monkeypox showing up in Europe is the milder of two strains.
In 1996-1997 there was an outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo that amounted to 511 recorded cases.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... be-worriedMonkeypox does not spread easily between humans, and requires close contact. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is thought that human-to-human transmission primarily occurs through large respiratory droplets.
“Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact is required,” the CDC says. “Other human-to-human methods of transmission include direct contact with body fluids or lesion material, and indirect contact with lesion material, such as through contaminated clothing or linens.”
Two of the clusters in the UK have no link to travel which suggest an untraced chain of transmission and likely undiagnosed cases in the communities involved.
Just posting this in case it is something that needs to be kept an eye on. Hopefully it is just an unusual event that will quickly recede.