The agency said the patient was admitted at the expert infectious disease unit of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, where he was being treated.
Director of Clinical and Emerging Infections, UKHSA, Dr. Colin Brown disclosed this in a statement on the agency’s website on Sunday.
The statement reads;
UKHSA can confirm an individual has been diagnosed with monkeypox in England. The patient has recent travel history from Nigeria, which is where they are believed to have contracted the infection, before travelling to the UK. The patient is receiving care at the expert infectious disease unit at the Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London.
Brown, however, said measures had been put in place to contain the spread of the disease in the country.
He said;
As a precautionary measure, UKHSA experts are working closely with NHS colleagues and will be contacting people who might have been in close contact with the individual to provide information and health advice.
This includes contacting a number of passengers who travelled in close proximity to the patient on the same flight to the UK.
He added;
People without symptoms are not considered infectious, but, as a precaution, those who have been in close proximity are being contacted to ensure that if they do become unwell, they can be treated quickly. If passengers are not contacted, then there is no action they should take.
Monkeypox is a rare viral infection that does not spread easily between people. It is usually a mild self-limiting illness and most people recover within a few weeks. However, severe illness can occur in some individuals.
The infection can be spread when someone is in close contact with an infected person; however, there is a very low risk of transmission to the general population.
The initial symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, and exhaustion.
A rash can develop, often beginning on the face, then spreading to other parts of the body. The rash changes and goes through different stages before finally forming a scab, which later falls off.
According to US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research, hence the name ‘monkeypox.’
The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during a period of intensified effort to eliminate smallpox.
Since then, monkeypox has been reported in people in several other central and western African countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, and Sierra Leone.
