Monkeypox may have been spreading in UK for years

According to health officials in the United Kingdom, the monkeypox virus may have been spreading for years at low levels.

This is the first time that the disease has spread locally outside of West and Central Africa, where it is endemic, as all previous cases outside Africa were related to foreign travel. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported that more than 200 people in 20 countries have been confirmed to have monkeypox. According to the U.K. Health Security Agency, 106 cases are currently in the U.K. The majority of cases worldwide have been identified in men who have sex in men, and officials have been able to link the current outbreak to two raves, one in Spain and the other in Belgium.

There is a chance that monkeypox has been transmitted in the U.K. for two to three years. There were four monkeypox cases in the U.K. in the year of 2018, and three more in the year of 2021, The Guardian reported.

This is everything you need to know about the Monkeypox outbreak.

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Dr. David Heymann, an infectious disease epidemiologist and WHO advisor, told The Guardian that it could be that the virus transmission amplified from this low level of transmission. Further study is needed to confirm this hypothesis.

The monkeypox strain that was reported in the U.K., Israel and Singapore in the last two years is most similar to the one that was reported in this outbreak, according to The Guardian. The current strain of the virus could have arisen as it spread in the U.K.

It must have been spreading in several individuals for the virus to have picked up these genes.

One to three days after a person gets a Monkeypox, they usually get a rash that starts on the face, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That rash turned into a bunch of blisters.

How would such a disease be overlooked?

If you get a rash in any part of Europe, you won't think of monkeypox, you will think of other diseases.

If a few cases are missed, the virus can be spread at a low rate to other people.

The full story about monkeypox in the U.K. can be found at The Guardian.

It was originally published on Live Science.