Liverpool Health experts call for calm as UK Monkeypox cases rise

Contact tracing's being carried out as the number of confirmed cases of the disease in England jumped to 57

Author: Paul DowardPublished 24th May 2022
Last updated 24th May 2022

Health experts in Liverpool say a rise in Monkeypox cases is inevitable, but it'll be nowhere near the scale we've seen in the Covid pandemic.

Contact tracing's underway after the number of people in England diagnosed with the virus rose to 57 on Monday.

You're most at risk if you have close personal contact with, or have changed the bedding of an infected person without wearing PPE.

With anyone coming into contact asked to self-isolate at home for three weeks.

Graeme Mitchell is from the Public Health institute at John Moores University, he's insiting we don't have another Covid on our hands :

"It's just not transmitted in the same way. People being exposed to Covid and knowing about it, we're all a bit more sensitive about these things at the moment.

"It's right we're taking action about it and it's right we're taking precautions but I just don't think it's much of an issue at the moment.

"It takes between seven and fourteen days for people to actually show symptoms so we'll have a lag of people who are infected now but will show symptoms in a little while so it won't surprise me to see cases go up.

"That's linked to the incubation period, not linked to outbreak if you like".

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