UK public health officials said a second monkeypox strain has been identified in the United Kingdom, which is linked with travel to the western region of Africa. According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), a patient who had recently travelled to the western region of Africa has been admitted to the high consequence infectious diseases (HCID) unit at the Royal Liverpool University hospital with the new strain.
Contact tracing is being conducted to establish if there are more linked cases of Monkeypox disease. Monkeypox has also caused outbreaks in the people living in the region.
The UKHSA said the preliminary genomic sequencing conducted by the agency indicates that this new monkeypox strain does not have the current outbreak strain circulating in the United Kingdom. It is not yet clear whether the monkeypox case involves a new strain of the monekypox disease.
The NHS and UKHSA have been properly established and have robust infection control procedures for dealing with the monkeypox cases of the imported infectious disease, and these strains will strictly be followed.
Dr. Sophia Maki, incident director at the UKHSA, said they remind everyone who is planning to travel to the western and central regions of Africa to be alert for the symptoms of monkeypox disease, and inform the health agencies if they have any symptoms.
