Mpox outbreaks are set to “grow quickly”, according to Dr Chris Smith, who spoke to GB News about the infection which now has a recorded case in Sweden.
He drew a comparison to Covid in his discussion with Martin Daubney on The People’s Channel as he defended the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) response.
“One of the criticisms that emerged during the Covid pandemic, levelled at countries worldwide is we were slow off the mark”, he said.
“I think what the WHO are trying to do is make sure we are one step ahead. We know prevention is better than cure.
Dr Chris Smith has issued a stark warning
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“If we do little or nothing and we wait until we have cases, it’s much harder to deal with this sort of thing and to put people on notice.
“This may be coming, we have to prepare and make sure we are vigilant. If we see a patient come into a hospital who has a travel history to an affected geography, it means people are likely to take it more seriously.
“Remember the R value of Covid. The R value for this virus is about two to three. That means two to three people will be infected for each person, that means outbreaks will grow quite quickly.
“Being on our guard, being vigilant and galvanising the world to respond will help to deal with the problem at source and minimise the risk to us here.”
The strain of mpox, known as clade 1b, emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Symptoms include a high temperature, muscle aches, headache, backache, swollen glands, exhaustion, joint pain and a rash.
The WHO declared mpox a global health emergencyGettyWorld Health Organisation director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the outbreak in DRC a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (2005) on Wednesday.
Dr Tedros said: “The emergence of a new clade of mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighbouring countries are very worrying.
“On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a co-ordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives.”
A vaccination programme was launched in the UK in the summer of 2022 and closed the following July.
Dr Chris Smith joined Martin Daubney on GB News
GB NEWS
According to the UKHSA, there were 3,732 confirmed and highly probably mpox cases reporter in the UK up to December 31, 2022.
In 2023 and up to July 31 this year, 286 cases were reported.
Of these, 269 were in England - with 116 patients presumed to have caught the virus in the UK and 82 outside of the country.