How prepared is the UK for an outbreak of mpox?
As mpox makes continues headlines across the globe, the World Health Organisation has said that, while serious, the virus is not "not the new COVID".
Last week, the WHO declared mpox a "global health emergency" as a highly infectious and more severe strain of the virus, named Clade I, increasingly spread through a number of African countries.
Later that day, Sweden reported the first known case of the strain outside of Africa. While the thought of the virus spreading between continents may be alarming, WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge suggested we shouldn't be comparing it to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Mpox is not the new COVID," he said, adding that scientists already "know quite a lot" about mpox Clade 2 – a strain of the virus behind an outbreak in Europe in 2022.
"We still have to learn more about Clade 1. We can and must tackle mpox together. So will we choose to put the systems in place to control and eliminate mpox globally?
"Or we will enter another cycle of panic and neglect? How we respond now and in the years to come will prove a critical test for Europe and the world."
Yahoo News takes a look at how ready the UK is for a potential outbreak of mpox.
What is mpox, and how serious is it?
Formerly known as monkeypox, mpox is a viral disease that can spread between people, mainly through close contact. Occasionally it can be spread from the environment to people via objects and surfaces that have been touched by a person with mpox.
Common symptoms include a rash lasting for two to four weeks, which may be started with or followed by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes.
The rash looks like blisters and can affect the face, palms of the hands, soles of the feet, groin, genital or anal regions, mouth, throat or the eyes. The number of sores can range from one to several thousand.
In some cases the disease can be fatal, with an estimated 0.1 to 10% of people who have become infected dying, according to WHO, although death rates may vary on a number of factors, including access to healthcare and underlying immunosuppression, for example, due to undiagnosed HIV.
As for Clade 1 – Prof Trudie Lang, professor of global health research at the University of Oxford, told the BBC: "It's definitely the most dangerous strain yet. We don’t know how many non-severe cases are hidden."
Clade 1 is believed to be more transmissible. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it "causes more severe illness and deaths", adding: "Some outbreaks have killed up to 10% of the people who get sick, although more recent outbreaks have had lower death rates."
What are the UK's preparedness plans for mpox?
On Monday, Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the UK's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and ministers from the Foreign Office and Department for Health met to discuss the threat of the virus.
Downing Street said the meeting was to "ensure sufficient plans are in place to deal with any potential cases". Last week, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) deputy director Dr Meera Chand said that while the risk to the UK population is "currently considered low", planning is under way to "prepare for any cases".
“This includes ensuring that clinicians are aware and able to recognise cases promptly, that rapid testing is available, and that protocols are developed for the safe clinical care of people who have the infection and the prevention of onward transmission.”
Guidance from the UKHSA includes NHS providers having adequate stocks of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and relevant staff are trained in its use for the assessment and treatment of patients presenting with suspected Clade I infection.
It says providers should ensure there is a established pathway for isolation and management of suspected Clade 1 patients, and arrangements for discussion of the case with local infectious disease, microbiology or virology consultants.
All samples from those who test positive for mpox must be sent to the UKHSA Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL) for clade differentiating tests.
Chloe Orkin, professor of infection and inequities at Queen Mary University, told inews that the UK was better stocked with vaccines than the previous outbreak two years ago. “We do have enough to give to people who are healthcare providers who are exposed or people who have been exposed via contact with a returning traveller," she said.
What have we learned from COVID?
If the COVID Inquiry’s first report into preparedness for a pandemic is anything to go by, the UK government should be taking quite a few lessons on board for health situations as mpox.
The inquiry, chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, published its first report in July saying there was a “damaging absence of focus” on the measures and infrastructure that would be needed to deal with a fast-spreading disease, even though a coronavirus outbreak at pandemic scale “was foreseeable”.
Key recommendations of the report include "a radical simplification of civil emergency preparedness and resilience systems, holding a UK-wide pandemic response exercise at least every three years and the creation of a single, independent statutory body responsible for whole system preparedness and response".
In her findings, Baroness Hallett noted a "flawed approach to risk assessment, a failure to fully learn from past civil emergency exercises and outbreaks of disease, and ministers not receiving a broad enough range of scientific advice and failing to challenge the advice they did get".
She said a dedicated body for pandemic preparedness should "consult widely, for example with experts in the field of preparedness and resilience and the voluntary, community and social sector, and provide strategic advice to government and make recommendations".
Last month Jeremy Hunt acknowledged that as health secretary between 2012 and 2018, he had been “part of a groupthink where we over-prepared for pandemic flu, we didn’t think about other types of pandemic”.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, he said: “I apologise unreservedly to the families. That was the most terrible tragedy what happened to this country during Covid.”
He also urged the new Government to take up the recommendations of Baroness Heather Hallett’s 217-page report.
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