Health officials will announce the latest number of UK monkeypox infections today, as government guidance says close contacts of cases with the highest risk of exposure should self-isolate for 21 days, reported Sky News.
Monkeypox is spreading in the UK through community transmission and new infections are now being detected on a daily basis, quoting a senior doctor the report added.
Officials are expecting a “significant rise” in infections this week, after the total increased to 20 on Friday.
Dr Susan Hopkins, a chief medical adviser from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “We are detecting more cases on a daily basis.
“We know there’s been a period of restrictions across Europe, and we don’t know where this infection has come from and how it’s come into Europe.
“There’s no obvious connection in our cases in the UK to a single event.”
New guidance from the UKHSA recommends people who have had “unprotected direct contact or high-risk environmental contact” with the disease should isolate – and avoid contact with immunosuppressed people, pregnant women, and children under 12.
Those contacts include household contact, sexual contact, or changing an infected person’s bedding without wearing appropriate PPE. They should also be offered a vaccine.
