Mpox symptoms and risk to UK as health chiefs issue key details around virus

UK health chiefs have shared the risk level to the UK and the important symptoms to know as a new global emergency has been declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Outbreaks of mpox in Africa have now been classed as a 'public health emergency of international concern', with all ages, including children, being affected.

An upsurge in cases has been confirmed in more than a dozen countries and a new form of the virus is spreading - but there are few vaccine doses available on the continent. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has welcomed the move from the WHO to 'release funding to accelerate vaccine access for lower-income countries and support surveillance, preparedness and response activities'.

"This is something that should concern us all," said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "The potential for further spread beyond Africa and beyond is very worrying."

READ MORE: World Health Organisation declares new global emergency

The decision comes after the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention announced mpox outbreaks were a public health emergency earlier this week. It explained that the virus has caused more than 500 deaths - as it urged the international community to help stop its spread. Mpox had been known as 'monkeypox' until November 2022, when it was given a new term by the WHO following complaints over the previous name being 'racist and stigmatising'.

The Africa CDC previously said that mpox has been detected in 13 countries this year, and that more than 96 per cent of all cases and deaths are in Congo. “We are now in a situation where (mpox) poses a risk to many more neighbours in and around central Africa,” said Salim Abdool Karim, a South African infectious diseases