(Bloomberg) -- The UK has detected the first confirmed case of a newer mpox strain that appears to spread more rapidly and is more dangerous than another variant already present in Britain, the country’s health security agency said Wednesday.
A patient with clade Ib mpox was identified in London, following recent travel to countries in Africa that have seen community transmission of that strain, the UK Health Security Agency said. The patient is being treated at the Royal Free Hospital High Consequence Infectious Diseases unit.
The risk to the public is low, the UKHSA said. Britain already has a supply of mpox vaccines and recently purchased more shots from Bavarian Nordic A/S.
Clade Ib has been spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as neighboring countries.
The newer strain is believed to transmit more easily than Clade II, which has been circulating at low levels in the UK since 2022, primarily among men who have sex with men.
Existing evidence suggests the new strain causes more severe disease, said the agency. Clade I has historically caused a higher number of deaths compared with clade II.
(Updates with more detail from paragraph one)
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