Mpox: Disease Control
(asked on 4th November 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to prevent the spread of Mpox.
There are two distinct types, known as clades, of the Mpox virus, specifically clade I and clade II. The previous significant outbreak in the United Kingdom in 2022 was from clade II. Details of the current National Health Service Mpox vaccination programme are available at the following link:
Clade I is currently classified as a high consequence infectious disease. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has led extensive planning across the Government and the NHS to deal with Mpox cases in the UK, and will coordinate contact tracing and offer testing and vaccination to contacts as needed.
Four cases of clade I Mpox have been detected in the UK, three of which are household contacts of the first case. All four patients are currently under specialist medical care.
In line with the advice of the Advisory Committee for Dangerous Pathogens, the border response for direct flights from affected countries includes pre-arrival health declarations. Digital messaging is displayed on information screens at 10 international airports in England and the Eurostar terminal, and the UKHSA is meeting flights from affected countries and giving health advice leaflets to passengers and crew.
We are placing a strong emphasis on ensuring that there are high levels of awareness among clinicians about the risks and the actions they need to take. The UKHSA Returning Workers Scheme for organisations sending workers to outbreak areas also provides pre-travel advice, active monitoring on return, and medical support for symptomatic returnees when necessary. Pre-travel advice for Mpox is publicly available on TravelHealthPro website, which is available at the following link:
https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/
The risk to the general population of the UK of being exposed to Mpox clade I is currently considered low.