A health expert said on Sunday that Britain is witnessing daily outbreaks of the uncommon monkeypox virus that are unattached to any trip to West Africa, where the disease is widespread.

After registering 20 incidents on Friday, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) stated additional numbers will be revealed on Monday.

When asked whether community transmission was now the norm in the United Kingdom, UKHSA chief medical adviser Susan Hopkins said, “certainly.”

“We’re discovering instances with no identified contact with a West African individual, which is what we’ve seen previously in this nation,” she told BBC television.

“We are finding more cases every day.”

Hopkins declined to confirm reports that one individual was in intensive care, but said the outbreak was concentrated in urban areas, among gay or bisexual men.

“The risk of the general population remains extremely low at the moment, and I think people need to be alert to it,” she said, adding that for most adults, symptoms would be “relatively mild.”

On May 7, the first UK case was revealed, involving a patient who had recently returned from Nigeria. In Europe and North America, the illness is also spreading.

Monkeypox can be spread by contact with an infected person’s skin lesions and droplets, as well as shared goods such as beds and towels.

Fever, muscular pains, enlarged lymph nodes, chills, tiredness, and a chickenpox-like rash on the hands and face are among the symptoms. They normally go away in two to four weeks.

There is no particular therapy, however, the smallpox vaccine has been shown to be around 85% effective in preventing monkeypox.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi stated that the UK government had already begun stockpiling the smallpox vaccine.

“We’re taking it very, very seriously,” he told the BBC.

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