The UK has recorded the first case of monkey fever outside of Africa

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that two people have been infected with a new type of monkey fever virus, "Mpox" in England after meeting a patient who returned to the country from Africa. This is recognized as the first transmission of the disease outside Africa.

The organization said in its statement yesterday that the two people infected with monkey fever live in the same house as a person who was tested and diagnosed with the disease shortly after visiting several African countries.

The statement added that these are "the first two cases of Mpox infection in Europe and the first ever reported outside Africa since August 2024."

For its part, the British Health Security Agency has said that infected people are receiving treatment at Guy's Hospital and St. Thomas in London, and warned of the possibility of other cases appearing in the aforementioned house.

Statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the African Union (Africa CDC) show that more than a thousand people have died due to monkey fever in Africa, where approximately 48,000 infections have been recorded since January this year.