London, Thanasis Gavos
A young child being treated in an intensive care unit at a London hospital is, according to the Telegraph, among the 20 cases smallpox monkey identified by health authorities in Britain.
On Friday, Health Minister Sajid Javid and the UK Health Insurance Agency (UKHSA) announced another 11 cases, bringing the total number of patients in the country to 20.
Data for the 11 new patients were not provided, while from the previous nine cases it was known that all six were homosexual or bisexual men.
The Telegraph also reveals that at a seminar in London in June 2019, scientists from the University of Cambridge, the UCL in London, the School of Tropical Health and Medicine and other universities, as well as experts from the British Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Defense Health England (now UKHSA) had warned that monkey pox could “fill the epidemic gap” left by the eradication of smallpox since the 1980s.
The experts had stressed that there is a need for a new generation of vaccines and treatments, citing outbreaks in 2003 and 2018 (in Britain, Israel and Singapore).
Speaking to Sky News, Dr Claire Dusnap, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, said “there will be a significant increase in diagnoses next week” and possibly “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 already have a spread and it is circulating in the general population”.
Dr Dusnap added that she feared that extra attention for smallpox in monkeys at sex clinics would deprive other patients of services, describing an image reminiscent of reduced coronary heart disease due to coronavirus.
UKHSA chief Dr Susan Hopkins told the BBC that the latest case figures would be announced on Monday and that her office was now detecting “more cases on a daily basis”.
Dr Hopkins, however, declined to confirm the Telegraph’s report that a body was being treated in an intensive care unit, saying it did not comment on individual cases.
Professor David Hayman, an infectious disease specialist at the London School of Tropical Health and Medicine, said: “What seems to be happening now is that (the virus) has entered the population as a sexually transmitted disease, as a sexually transmitted diseases, which has intensified its spread around the world. “
He pointed out that the main mode of transmission is close contact and that is why some countries have already started giving the smallpox vaccine. to health personnel dealing with cases of smallpox in monkeys.
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