The European Centres for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) will issue a new risk assessment on mpox soon, the public health agency said. In the meantime, we could see more “isolated import cases,” it added.
Clade I of mpox is associated with more severe illness and higher fatality rates than clade II, which was widespread during the 2022 outbreak that affected Europe and North America. Clade I also appears to affect children more.
Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, told Times Radio today that clade I was “almost certainly” in the U.K. already.
Clade I is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries — prompting the WHO to declare a public health emergency of international concern on Wednesday.
According to WHO, the first known case of sexually transmitted mpox clade I in the DRC was a resident of Belgium who was likely exposed to the virus there. Researchers later found no evidence that clade I was circulating in Belgium, however.