英国猴痘病例增至4例 新毒株引发关注

British health officials say they have identified fourcases of the new, highly infectious version of mpox that first appeared in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo.
The announcement marks the first time the variant has caused agroup of illnesses outside of Africa. Scientists said the risk to the publicremains low.
Officials announced the first case of the new form of mpox in Britain lastweek. Officials said the person who was being treated at a London hospital hadrecently travelled to countries in Africa with ongoing outbreaks.
This week, the British Health Security Agency said it had now identified threeadditional cases. All of them lived in the same household as the first patient.The new cases are also being treated at a hospital in London.
Susan Hopkins is chief medical advisor of the British Health Security Agency.She said, “Mpox is very infectious in households with close contact and so itis not unexpected to see further cases within the same household."
The new variant of mpox was first reported earlier this year in the easternpart of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or the DRC. Scientists believe itcauses milder symptoms that are harder to notice. As a result,it might be easier to spread because people may not know they are infected. Itsspread in the DRC and in other parts of Africa caused the World HealthOrganization to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of internationalconcern in August.
Britain recorded more than 3,000 cases of another version of mpox during a 2022outbreak that affected more than 100 countries.
The new variant of mpox has also caused outbreaks in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda andUganda. Single cases in travelers have also been reported in Sweden, India,Germany and Thailand.
To date, there have been about 43,000 suspect cases of mpox in Africa,including more than 1,000 deaths, mostly in the DRC.
On Wednesday, the WHO said it had given about 900,000 vaccine doses tonine African countries struggling with mpox epidemics.

英国卫生官员表示，他们已经确认了四例新的、高度传染性的猴痘变种病例，这种变种最初出现在刚果民主共和国。

这一宣布标志着该变种首次在非洲以外地区引发群体性感染。科学家们称，公众面临的风险仍然较低。

英国官员上周宣布了英国首例新型猴痘病例。官员们表示，正在伦敦一家医院接受治疗的患者最近曾前往非洲有持续疫情的国家。

本周，英国卫生安全局表示，现已确认了三例额外病例。所有这些病例都与首位患者同住一个家庭。新病例也在伦敦的一家医院接受治疗。

苏珊·霍普金斯是英国卫生安全局的首席医疗顾问。她说：“猴痘在家户内通过密切接触非常具有传染性，因此在同一家庭中看到更多病例并不出乎意料。”

这种新的猴痘变种在今年早些时候首次在刚果民主共和国东部报告。科学家认为，它导致的症状较轻，更难察觉。因此，由于人们可能不知道自己已感染，它的传播可能会更容易。该变种在刚果民主共和国和其他非洲地区的传播导致世界卫生组织在8月份宣布此次疫情为国际关注的公共卫生紧急事件。

2022年，英国记录了3,000多例另一种猴痘版本的病例，那次疫情影响了100多个国家。

新的猴痘变种还引发了布隆迪、肯尼亚、卢旺达和乌干达的疫情。在瑞典、印度、德国和泰国也报告了旅行者中的个别病例。

迄今为止，非洲已报告约43,000例疑似猴痘病例，其中包括1,000多例死亡，主要发生在刚果民主共和国。

周三，世卫组织表示，已向九个正面临猴痘疫情的非洲国家提供了约90万剂疫苗。