The United Kingdom reports the first local infections of the new mpox variant outside Africa

Two people have contracted the new variant of the mpox virus in the United Kingdom after coming into contact with another infected person who returned from Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported this Tuesday.

The WHO points out that these are two people who live “in the same household as a person who tested positive shortly after a trip to several African countries. These are »the first cases of local transmission in Europe and even the first outside Africa« since August 2024, when the organization declared a global emergency due to the new variant.

“The overall risk to the population of the United Kingdom and the region remains low,” said Hans Kluge, WHO director general for Europe in a statement. “But local transmission of clade 1b mpox should prompt health authorities to intensify their surveillance measures and prepare for rapid contact tracing of suspected and confirmed cases,” he added.

Mpox, also known as handpox, was first detected in humans in 1970 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For several months, a new epidemic has affected Africa, with the highest infection figures in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi and Nigeria.