Britain Confirms Two Cases of Clade Ib Type of Mpox

Europe|Britain Confirms Two Cases of Newer Type of Mpox

Two new cases of the version of mpox that has fueled a deadly outbreak in central Africa have been detected in Britain, according to the country’s health authorities. But the authorities say that the overall risk of a rapid spread in the country remains low.

Both people had been in close contact with someone in Britain who was confirmed last week to have the virus, and an mpox vaccine has been made available to all three infected people, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency said in a statement on Monday. The three are being treated at London hospitals, the agency said.

“Mpox is very infectious in households with close contact, and so it is not unexpected to see further cases within the same household,” Susan Hopkins, the agency’s chief medical adviser, said in the statement.

The disease, formerly known as monkeypox, has been endemic in West and Central Africa for more than 50 years. A wider outbreak occurred in 2022, with the illness spreading to Europe, the United States and other parts of the world.

That outbreak began to wane last year, and a low number of mpox cases have circulated in Britain and elsewhere in Europe since then. But the type of mpox confirmed in the three new cases presents a greater threat.

A subtype known as Clade Ia has led to the infection of more than 30,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and at least 990 deaths since the start of the year, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. More than half of Congo’s new mpox cases overall are among children, according to UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency.