Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase access to (1) testing, (2) vaccination, and (3) treatment, for Mpox patients (a) in England, and (b) globally.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the National Health Service, and partners have well tested response capabilities to detect, contain, and treat novel infectious diseases, including Mpox.

The United Kingdom has sufficient testing capabilities in place to test for the different types of Mpox, as the UKHSA and some NHS laboratories can do the primary test for Mpox, and the UKHSA has requested that all NHS confirmed Mpox samples are sent to the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory at the UKHSA, who can provide specialist polymerase chain reaction and genomic sequencing to determine the clade type.

The UKHSA is working closely with NHS England and has developed algorithms, which have been shared across the NHS, to support referrals of suspect cases for assessment. As part of the UKHSA’s well established preparedness plans, we have a supply of vaccines to vaccinate contacts of cases, and to vaccinate those in transmission networks connected to cases, as appropriate.

The Government is committed to helping the international response. The UK is the second largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, providing £1.65 billion over the 2020 to 2025 period. We are also working closely with them on ensuring sustainable and effective access to Mpox vaccines for low and middle income countries.

Critical to the management of any infections in the UK will be the rapid identification of any possible cases, with appropriate isolation and swift follow-up to trace and support identified contacts. We are placing a strong emphasis on ensuring there are high levels of awareness among clinicians about the risk and the actions they need to take when presented with possible cases. An update on case definitions and a briefing note has been issued.