A top British doctor has predicted a ‘significant rise’ in monkeypox cases in the UK in the next few weeks, as the country recorded 20 cases — and more than 100 found in Europe.
The disease, which was first found in monkeys, can be transmitted from person to person through close physical contact – including sexual intercourse – and is caused by the monkeypox virus.
Dr Claire Dewsnap, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, is worried about the rate the virus is spreading.
She told Sky News that she expects a ‘significant’ rise in infections next week.
‘What worries me the most is there are infections across Europe, so this has already spread,’ she said. ‘It’s already circulating in the general population… It could be really significant numbers over the next two or three weeks.’
She also warned that the virus could have a ‘massive impact’ on access to sexual health services in Britain.
The UK Health Security Agency has said a notable proportion of recent cases in Britain and Europe have been found in gay and bisexual men.
Yesterday, health authorities in Spain reported 23 more confirmed cases of monkeypox, mainly in the Madrid region where the regional government closed a sauna linked to the majority of infections.
It is believed that there are 50 cases in Spain, 30 confirmed and 20 suspected, along with two confirmed cases in the Spanish Canary Islands.
Sauna is used in Spain to describe establishments popular with gay men looking for sex rather than just a bathhouse.
‘The Public Health Department will carry out an even more detailed analysis… to control contagion, cut the chains of transmission and try to mitigate the transmission of this virus as much as possible,’ said regional health chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero.
By Daily Mail
