UK health officials have confirmed four new cases of the new, more contagious variant mpox It first emerged in DR Congo, clade 1b. This is the first time this variant has caused a cluster of disease outside Africa. This is the same strain that caused the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare mpox a public health emergency.

According to reports, officials announced the first case of the new form of mpox in the UK last week. He said the case was being treated in a London hospital after recently traveling to countries with ongoing outbreaks in Africa.

This week the UK Health Protection Agency said it had now identified three more cases who lived in the same household as the first patient. He is also now undergoing treatment in a hospital in London.

Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UK Health Protection Agency, said: “Mpox is very contagious in households with close contacts and so it is not unexpected to see further cases in the same household.”

Britain recorded more than 3,000 cases of another type of mumps during the 2022 outbreak, which affected more than 100 countries. Additionally, variants of Mpox have also caused outbreaks in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Single cases have also been reported among travelers in Sweden, India, Germany and Thailand.

WHO said on Wednesday it had allocated 899,900 vaccine doses to nine African countries battling the MPOX epidemic.

Mumps, also known as monkeypox, is a viral disease caused by the monkeypox virus. It is a zoonotic disease and hence can spread from animals to humans. It was first discovered in monkeys and hence, it was first named monkeypox. MPox usually causes a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes, and fever.

Although most people recover from this condition, some people may become very ill. There are two types of MPOX; Clade I and Clade II. Experts say the Clade I type of mpox virus has a mortality rate of about 10%. Infections in the 2022–2023 outbreak were from clade II or, more specifically, clade IIb. Infection with clade IIb is rarely fatal. More than 99% of people with this type of disease have a chance of survival.

However, clade IB infection can be fatal. It has a high mortality rate and so, with the current outbreak of the disease in Africa, it has killed about 1,000 people and there have been about 43,000 suspected cases.

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