Scientists baffled by monkeypox

Scientists who have monitored numerous outbreaks of monkeypox in Africa say they are baffled by the disease’s recent spread in Europe and North America.

In the past week, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the US, Sweden and Canada all reported infections, mostly in young men who hadn’t previously travelled to Africa.

There are about 80 confirmed cases worldwide and 50 more suspected ones, the World Health Organisation said.

“I’m stunned. Every day I wake up and there are more countries infected,” said Oyewale Tomori, a virologist who formerly headed the Nigerian Academy of Science.

To date, no one has died in the outbreak. Monkeypox typically causes fever, chills, rash and lesions on the face or genitals. The WHO estimates the disease is fatal for up to one in 10 people.

British health officials are exploring whether the disease is sexually transmitted. Health officials say the risk to the general population is low.

Nigeria reports about 3,000 monkeypox cases a year, WHO said. Outbreaks are usually in rural areas, when people have close contact with infected rats and squirrels, Tomori said.

On Friday, Britain’s Health Security Agency reported 11 new cases, saying “a notable proportion” of the infections have been in young men with no history of travel to Africa and who were gay, bisexual or had sex with men.

Authorities in Spain and Portugal also said their cases were in young men who mostly had sex with other men.

Experts have stressed they do not know if the disease is being spread through sex or other close contact related to sex.

Christian Happi, director of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in Nigeria, said the suspension of smallpox vaccination campaigns after the disease was eradicated in 1980 might be helping monkeypox spread.

Shabir Mahdi, a professor of vaccinology at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said a detailed investigation of the outbreak in Europe was now critical.

“We need to really understand how this first started and why the virus is now gaining traction,” he said.