Top scientists raised concerns over monkeypox three years ago

A GROUP of leading British scientists warned three years ago that monkeypox would fill the void left behind by smallpox, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

Two dozen experts, including academics from the University of Cambridge, UCL and the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine, as well as experts from the Ministry of Defence and Public Health England (now the UK Health Security Agency, or UKHSA), met at the headquarters of the Chatham House think tank in London in June 2019.

At the impromptu seminar they discussed how monkeypox may “fill the ecological niche” left behind by smallpox – which was eradicated in 1980 – and that there is a need to develop “new generation vaccines and treatments”.

Alongside the elite British minds, which featured distinguished professors and Sage advisers, were industry figures and international experts from four other nations, and the illustrious guest list made up an “ad-hoc and unofficial group of interested experts”.

The academics wrote their conclusions in a paper, published in 2020 in

the journal Vaccine, and warned that less than one in three people are now protected against smallpox, and by association, monkeypox, as Britain’s vaccination programmes were stopped in 1971. As a result, the population immunity against all pox viruses has now dwindled to a diminutive level.

The smallpox vaccine used to wipe out the virus by 1980 was a live virus which often had side-effects.

Now, a new vaccine is available which contains a non-replicating virus and is much better tolerated, with around 85 per cent protection against monkeypox.

Since May 6, 20 cases of monkeypox have been identified in the UK, predominantly among gay and bisexual men. One of the 20 cases is reportedly a young child who is in intensive care in a London hospital.

In Spain, health authorities are investigating whether a gay pride festival held earlier this month in the Canary Islands is behind the outbreak of monkeypox in Europe.

According to the newspaper El País, several cases of monkeypox detected in Madrid and two in Italy have affected people who attended the 10-day event focused around Playa del Inglés in the south of Gran Canaria island.

Gay Pride de Maspalomas climaxed last weekend and was attended by tens of thousands from all over the world.