Britain has urgently stockpiled MPOX vaccines as the menacing new virus hits British shores.
NHS staff have also received guidance from the UK’s Health Security Agency to ensure they recognise the symptoms of the Clade 1 mpox variant.
The disease, which experts say is spreading faster and has a higher mortality rate than the previous outbreak two years ago, has been detected in Sweden and Pakistan.
First identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest mpox variant is believed to be the most dangerous yet.
The initial symptoms are similar to those of the flu: a rash that usually begins on the face and then spreads throughout the body, causing a systemic infection.
MPox causes painful, pus-filled blisters. A patient with mpox has his temperature taken in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Single-dose vials of the Jynneos mpox vaccine are seen from a cooler at a vaccination site in Los Angeles in 2022
The World Health Organization declared the mutant mpox variant a global health emergency after its rapid spread to at least 13 countries.
Studies suggest that up to 10 percent of infected children and 5 percent of adults have died from the new strain in central and southern Africa, where porous borders have facilitated transmission.
More than 500 people are believed to have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone.
Professor Paul Hunter, a specialist in medical microbiology, told Sky News it was “highly likely” someone in Britain already had the new variant, although it would likely be a few weeks before that was confirmed.
He said the risk of infection was “very low” unless people had multiple sexual partners.
Danish biotech firm Bavarian Nordic said Saturday it plans to ramp up production of its mpox vaccine and work with international health organizations to ensure fair access as the disease has been declared a global public health emergency.
The company, one of the few drugmakers with an mpox vaccine, said it has informed the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that it can manufacture 10 million doses of the vaccine by the end of 2025, and could already supply up to 2 million doses this year.
Zeil Rosenberg MD, executive vice president of Tonix Pharmaceuticals, a company currently developing an mpox vaccine, told MailOnline that the disease is now spreading to regions where it has not historically been endemic, raising concerns of a repeat of the deadly 2022 outbreak that infected nearly 100,000 people.
“The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains at the centre of an uncontrolled explosion of cases, with 11,000 cases reported this year alone and showing no signs of slowing down,” he warned.
Jean Kakura Biyambo, a father of six from Muja IDP camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo, gestures from a general hospital where he has been receiving treatment for mpox, on July 16.
A 1997 image shows MPOX symptoms in a patient in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire.
Britain has stockpiled vaccines and MPOX treatments to prepare for a dangerous new strain of the virus that has sparked a global health emergency.
He explained that there are currently two “clades” of mpox circulating. The first carries more severe symptoms and a mortality rate of up to ten percent. The second, responsible for the 2022 outbreak, is less lethal but has been able to thrive outside Africa in the past.
“The most severe and lethal clade 1 mpox, historically endemic to central Africa…, has become predominant and is now found throughout the region,” he warned.
The NHS is now urging people who have travelled to West Africa in the past three months and are showing symptoms to seek urgent medical advice amid fears the virus could spread outside Africa.