Monkeypox remains an extremely rare disease in the United Kingdom. For the majority of people, this viral illness is easily manageable and resolves on its own, with only a few requiring specialist hospital treatment. As of Wednesday, there have been 78 cases of monkeypox in the United Kingdom. The unexpected outbreak, which has spread to Europe, the United States and Australia, originated in West and Central Africa, where the disease is considered endemic.
Several UK hospitals specializing in highly contagious infectious diseases (HCID) are dealing with severe cases of monkeypox. These hospitals have treated cases of Ebola, SARS, and MERS, among others.
Monkeypox is difficult to identify by its early symptoms, which include fever, headache, and back pain that may have many other causes. If a rash appears on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and other parts of the body, including the genitals, a person can go and show it to their regular family doctor or a specialist at a venereal clinic.
The rash goes through several stages and eventually dries up. If these doctors suspect monkeypox, they take a swab from the blister on the patient’s skin and send it to the Rare Infectious Disease Laboratory at Porton Down Biological Research Centre for analysis. The patient will wait for the results and recover at home in isolation. A contact tracing team will call him and ask for the names of people he may have infected. However, in case of complications or if the patient is in a high-risk group, he/she will most likely be taken by a special ambulance to one of the HCID infectious hospitals. There are five major infection centers in the United Kingdom: Newcastle in the north, Sheffield and Liverpool in the center of the country, and two hospitals in London.
The BBC spoke to Dr. Hugh Adler, a physician and scientist at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, about how these hospitals differ from regular hospitals. He has treated monkeypox in the UK during previous outbreaks.
Ward in the Infectious Diseases Department of Newcastle Hospital. “These hospitals have rooms where people can be isolated,” Adler explains. “Plus qualified staff and a concentration of medical experts. Almost every day, there are teleconferences between the centers. We just check the number of cases and share our experiences,” adds the doctor. Specialists in the HCID hospitals are also involved in scientific work, research, and have access to the latest medications.
Currently, monkeypox patients in the UK are being treated in two ways. The first is a vaccine against natural (black) smallpox, which is much more deadly than monkeypox, a related disease. Many countries have stockpiles of it.
Vaccination helps in the early stages of monkeypox. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. The number of offers should remain: episodes. The end of the story. Advertising Podcasts. In 1980, the World Health Organization declared that smallpox had been eradicated worldwide. However, the virus is still kept in laboratories, and in case someone is infected again, whether accidentally or intentionally, there are vaccines and plans in place to contain the spread of the disease. Studies have shown that the smallpox vaccine provides good protection against both smallpox and monkeypox. Even if a person has already been infected, there is a high likelihood that they will not develop symptoms if they receive this vaccine. However, if symptoms have already occurred, the vaccine will not be effective. In this case, the second method of treatment should help – antiviral drugs.
Dr. Hugh Adler recently published the results of his mini-study in the Lancet showing that the antiviral drug tecovirimat is effective in treating monkeypox. This drug was developed in 2018 to combat smallpox, including in the event of its potential re-emergence, such as in a biological attack.
The antiviral drug Tekovirmat was developed to treat smallpox in the event of a biological attack. Adler had data on only one patient who took tekovimir during treatment at a Liverpool hospital in 2021. But compared to other patients, he was discharged much sooner, and his rash was less extensive and painful. “Heavy cases of monkeypox, I will definitely call for treatment with antiviral drugs, starting as early as possible. It is important to prioritize these cases for antiviral treatment,” says Adler.
In Europe and the United States, doctors have recently begun prescribing antiviral drugs to patients with monkeypox as an experimental treatment. A more challenging task is to initiate large-scale trials of these drugs in Africa, where doctors say the need is greatest. During the current outbreak in the United Kingdom, patients with severe monkeypox have been hospitalized for periods ranging from five days to several weeks. According to Dr. Adler, the current outbreak has taken doctors by surprise, but compared to Ebola or MERS, monkeypox is relatively easy to treat with simple methods.