According to the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA), there have been 1,552 confirmed cases of smallpox in the UK linked to the outbreak since 7 July. While anyone can contract the virus as it is spread through intimate or intimate contact, the majority of cases so far have been among gay and bisexual men and men who have sex with men (MSM). Within England, the majority of cases were in London. There is little sign of infections going away, with the latest estimates from the UKHSA suggesting that case numbers are doubling every 15 days. “[There is] there is no evidence that current strategies are likely to put an end to this anytime soon,” said Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, although he noted that while the overall number of cases continued to rise, the rate of new infections it may have flattened. The concerns arose as a whistleblower working on a UKHSA monkeypox line of inquiry said it had a number of issues, including offering little support to people who have not been confirmed contacts of cases – e.g. The Guardian has seen scenarios where even if someone calls because they are concerned they may have had contact with a confirmed case, they are told the risk is very low if they have not been officially identified as a contact. The whistleblower said it didn’t make sense when a caller said a sexual partner had symptoms of monkeypox. In addition, the informant said that call operators are not allowed to suggest that callers contact a sexual health clinic unless sexual health was mentioned by the caller. They added that some clinics had disabled their phone lines. The UKHSA rejected the claims, saying the helpline is an additional service to provide non-clinical advice to members of the public. Dr William Welfare, the agency’s incident manager, said specialist public health teams were fast-tracking all cases to limit transmission, with contacts being assessed as high-risk vaccinations. “Contact tracing often relies on people sharing contacts for a large number of sexual contacts, so it can inevitably be difficult when confidentiality is also a consideration. We quickly implemented a high-quality public health operation with sexual health services to investigate and control monkeypox and to support those affected,” Welfare said. “Monkey pox is mainly transmitted through very close contact, mainly through relatively closed sexual networks, and has not been routinely detected in the general population. The prevalence of infection in the UK as a whole and therefore the risk to the general public currently remains low.” Vaccination includes a smallpox jab that also offers protection against monkeypox. The UKHSA recently announced it will widen eligibility for vaccination to include certain gay and bisexual men who are at higher risk of exposure to the virus, even if close contact with a case has not been confirmed. The UKHSA confirmed there was a ready supply of vaccine, with almost 30,000 doses procured, but said the NHS had yet to announce plans to develop the vaccine. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST An NHS spokesman said: “The NHS is working with local partners to identify and invite those eligible for vaccination to come forward and over the coming weeks will be rapidly increasing the number of clinics to make it as quick and convenient as possible. get vaccinated. “Following UKHSA’s advice, the NHS will continue to prioritize vaccination for those most at risk, including healthcare workers in specialist roles and clinics where exposure to monkeypox is highest.” But Hunter said an even broader approach may be needed. “I think that more widespread vaccination of high-risk MSM – people who have frequent multiple contacts – and perhaps female sex workers is the way forward,” he said. “We may not have enough vaccine to do that, but I think there could be a case for offering vaccine to everyone who is tracking STDs [sexually transmitted diseases] clinic.”
