Two people have contracted the new variant of the mpox virus in the United Kingdom after coming into contact with a patient who had returned from Africa, making them the first local transmissions outside Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday 5 November.
These two people live “in the same household as a person who tested positive shortly after travel to several African countries”, says WHO, adding that these are “the first locally transmitted cases in Europe, and indeed the first outside Africa” since August 2024. At that time, the organisation triggered its highest level of international alert in response to the resurgence of cases of mpox in Africa.
“The overall risk to the general population in the UK and wider region remains low, but local transmission of mpox clade Ib should be the impetus for health systems to heighten their surveillance measures and be prepared for rapid contact tracing of suspected and confirmed cases”, said Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.
Other cases had previously been detected in Germany, Sweden and several Asian countries.
A new epidemic is affecting Africa, with the highest infection figures in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi and Nigeria.
There are two concomitant epidemics: one caused by clade I in Central Africa, mainly affecting children, and the other by the new variant (clade Ib), affecting adults in the east of the DRC and neighbouring countries (see EUROPE 13505/28, 13487/6). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)