A MAJOR hospital is racing to identify patients and staff exposed to mpox – after a person with the infection visited their A&E.
bosses at the Cambridge-based hospital said they had alerted 30 patients over possible exposure to the nasty bug.
A further 20 staff members were also contacted, in a effort to the detect whether the virus had spread.
Mpox is a rare viral infection caused by a virus belonging to the same family as small pox.
It causes flu-like symptoms and sores that can spread through physical contact and contaminated clothing or bedding.
The person with mpox went to Addenbrooke's Hospital on the evening of April 12.
The patient has since been isolating at home, a spokesperson for University Hospitals NHS Trust (CUH), which runs the hospital, said.
Theyadded: “We are in contact with around 30 patients and 20 staff as a precautionary measure after a patient with mpox visited our emergency department on Saturday evening (12 April).
“The aim is to establish factors such as their proximity to the patient which, coupled with known factors like their age and vulnerability, helps determine whether they are offered a vaccine, or given advice around symptoms to look for and what to do.
“The UK Security Agency (UKHSA) has been informed and the patient is now isolating at home and under the care of their GP.
“We would reassure patients who visited A&E on Saturday there is no need to contact us – we will contact them if we think there was any possibility of exposure.”
Mpox is usually mild and can get better within a few weeks without treatment.
But if symptoms are more severe and you become unwell, you will need treatment in hospital.
Older people, young children and people with weakened immune systems due to health conditions or medicines are at greater risk of severe illness.
The NHS currently offers an mpox vaccine to people more likely to catch mpox.
This can include men who have sex with men and have multiple partners, as well as people who've come in close contact with someone infected.
The hospital didn't specify what strain of mpox the patient had – Sun Health has contacted it for further comment.
But Cambridge University Hospitals noted that, for most people in the UK, the risk of catching mpox is low.
In a separate notice to patients on its website, the trust warned that hospital emergency departments were “very busy” in the run-up to Easter.
have issued similar warnings, pleading with patients to use NHS services wisely and not turn up to A&E unless it was an emergency.
Meanwhile, in warned patients that “strict measures have been introduced” in wards “to stop the spread of“ – a nasty diarrhoea and vomiting bug.
News of the mpox case in Addenbrooke's Hospitalcomes after earlier this month, in a person with no links to other cases or travel history to regions with high infections.
The unidentified person living in the North East of was the 11th confirmed case of the newin the UK, following the first case back in the .
All– reported in , and East – were people who had either recently returned fromor been in close contact with someone who had.
The news raised fears that thecould be silently spreading through the UK.
There are two types of the virus that causes mpox, clade 1 (with subclades 1a and 1b)and clade 2.
Clade 1b sprouted from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in November 2023.
Since then, it has infected more than 25,000 people and is responsible for more than 1,000 deaths.
This variant is different from those circulating in the UK since 2022, with experts suggesting it might be.
Cases of clade 1 mpox remain very rare in the UK.
At the beginning of April, researchers also warned that if international action isn't taken.
In a letter published in Nature Medicine, University of scientists highlighted how mpox – traditionally spread from animals to humans – is now showing clear signs of sustained human-to-human transmission.
Carlos Maluquer de Motes, Reader in Molecular Virology at the University of , said: “The most recent outbreaks show that intimate contact is now a significant way the virus spreads.
“That shift in how it’s transmitted is leading to longer transmission chains and lasting outbreaks.”;
Meanwhile, Africa CDC and the (WHO) said mpox was continuing to tear through the African continent and was spreading to new areas.
“Within Africa, in addition to transmission in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, local transmission has now been documented in additional countries including the Republic of the Congo, , South , the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia,” the health watchdogs wrote in a recent report.
