Major hospital issues warning after person with mpox visits A&E – as it rushes to identify patients and staff exposed
A MAJOR hospital is racing to identify patients and staff exposed to mpox - after a person with the infection visited their A&E.
Health bosses at the Cambridge-based hospital said they had alerted 30 patients over possible exposure to the nasty bug.
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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 Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (CUH), which runs the hospital, said.
They added: "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 Health 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.
A number of major hospitals have issued similar warnings, pleading with patients to use NHS services wisely and not turn up to A&E unless it was an emergency.
MPOX is a viral infectious disease.
It is a rare zoonosis, which means that it is transmitted to humans from an animal.
The disease primarily occurs in remote parts of Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
Mpox causes symptoms between five and 21 days after exposure.
The symptoms of monkeypox start similar to the flu. But then a rash breaks out, starting on the face.
Initial symptoms include:
- Fever
- Headache
- Muscle aches
- Backache
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Chills
- Exhaustion
An itchy and sometimes painful rash slowly appears one to three days into illness, starting with the face, palms of the hands and soles of the feet.
What starts as a seemingly harmless red rash - which looks like chickenpox - evolves into angry blisters that can last several days.
The inside of the mouth, genitals and lining of the eyes can also be affected by the nasty rash.
If the rash spreads to the eyes it can cause blindness.
While some patients may have only a few lesions, others will have thousands, the WHO says.
Symptoms generally last from 14 to 21 days, with severe cases relating to age, the extent of virus exposure, the patient's health and the severity of complications.
What are the different mpox Clades?
There are two distinct mpox Clades:
- Clade 1 (with subclades 1a and 1b)
- Clade 2 (with subclades 2a and 2b)
Clade 2 was responsible for the global mpox outbreak in 2022-2023.
Meanwhile, Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth warned patients that "strict measures have been introduced" in wards "to stop the spread of norovirus" - a nasty diarrhoea and vomiting bug.
News of the mpox case in Addenbrooke's Hospitalcomes after a case of a mutant mpox strain was detected in England 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 England was the 11th confirmed case of the new clade 1b variant in the UK, following the first case back in the autumn.
All 10 previous cases - reported in London, Leeds and East Sussex - were people who had either recently returned from Africa or been in close contact with someone who had.
The news raised fears that the virus could 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 more contagious.
Cases of clade 1 mpox remain very rare in the UK.
At the beginning of April, researchers also warned that mpox has the potential to become a significant global threat if international action isn't taken.
In a letter published in Nature Medicine, University of Surrey 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 Surrey, 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 World Health Organisation (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 Africa, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia," the health watchdogs wrote in a recent report.
thesun
