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Patient with new strain of monkeypox hospitalized in U.K.
British health officials have confirmed that a new strain of monkeypox has been discovered in the UK.
The UK Health Security Agency said on Thursday (Sep 1) that a person who had recently travelled to West Africa was diagnosed with a monkeypox strain that was different from the one currently circulating in the UK.
UKHSA said in a statement: "Preliminary genomic sequencing conducted by UKHSA indicates that this case does not have the current outbreak strain circulating in the UK.”
This discovery reveals a third category of monkeypox. Previously, monkeypox was known to have two variants, Clade I and Clade II, which were respectively known as the Congo Basin and West African clades.
The person, who remains unnamed, is now at the High Consequence Infectious Disease unit at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
The British health agency said that no other cases had been identified as of Thursday, and that contact tracing is currently being carried out.
WHO reports more than 41,000 cases of monkeypox globally
Sophia Maki, incident director of the UK Health Security Agency, said: “We are working to contact the individuals who had close contact with the case prior to confirmation of their infection, to assess them as necessary and provide advice.”
She added that the risk to the public was still “very low” due to infection control procedures.
According to the CDC, 52,090 cases have now been reported worldwide, of which 19,465 have been found in the U.S.
