The British Health Security Agency reported an exceptional case in which a British citizen who traveled to Nigeria and returned to his country, contracted the monkey pox. The disease is a viral infection similar to smallpox, but although it can be fatal – the symptoms are milder and most people recover within a few weeks.
Returned from Nigeria and infected with the monkey pox: Last night (Saturday) the British Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reported that a rare case of infection with the monkey pox virus has been discovered in the UK. The patient, a British citizen who had returned from a trip to Nigeria, where he claimed to have contracted the virus. The patient is currently being treated by specialist doctors in the Infectious Diseases Unit at London Hospital.
The monkey pox virus causes a disease similar to the smallpox, but the symptoms of the disease are milder and most of the infected will recover within a few weeks. The risk of death from those infected is only about 10 percent. There is currently no known effective or safe treatment for the disease, but the smallpox vaccine has been found to be effective in preventing the infection of monkey pox.
The virus is contagious by eating meat from wildlife, biting an animal or scratching and contact with an infected person, and is diagnosed by a blood test and clinical features. The symptoms of infection are fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, feeling tired, rash and blisters on the skin.
Dr Colin Brown, Director of Clinical Infections at the British Agency, says that “although the disease can be spread through close human contact, there is a very low risk of infection in the community. We are working on contacting people who have been in contact with the infected person, to provide them with advice in case they become infected. The agency has control procedures for dealing with similar cases, and they are carried out strictly. “