Concerns ‘monkeypox’ virus could spread to Australia through international travel

Authorities fear a rare and lethal virus of African origin could strike Australia after transmission was detected in the UK.

Authorities fear the lethal monkeypox could strike Australia after transmission was detected in the UK.

The rare African-originated disease kills one in ten people infected and leaves victims covered in irritating rashes and blisters.

Symptoms include lesions, fever, muscle ache and chills.

Transmission is usually through close contact with infected animals such as rodents and monkeys but can only spread between people in close proximity through bodily fluids or close contact in droplets of breath.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is co-ordinating with the UK and other European health officials after British authorities detected at least seven cases of monkeypox this month.

A skin lesion caused by the monkeypox virus on the hand of a child infected after being bitten by a prairie dog. Picture: USA / Medical

In a briefing on Tuesday, the WHO said there was also one “additional probable” case reported in Britain.

“We are seeing transmission among men having sex with men,” Ibrahima Soce Fall, assistant director general for emergency response at the WHO, told reporters.

“(It) is new information we need to investigate properly, to understand better the dynamic of local transmission in UK and in some other countries.” Maria Van Kerkhove, another WHO official, said the organisation was working with its regional office, as well as the European Centers for Disease Control and the UKHSA, to better understand the outbreak.

“We are working very closely with [them] … to evaluate each of these cases, the source of their infection,” she added.

Van Kerkhove noted that involved “forward contact tracing to ensure that there isn’t further human-to-human transmission, as well as back contact tracing to better understand the source of their infection”.

Australian health authorities are concerned the disease could enter the country through international travellers arriving from the UK, America or Africa, but there have been no known cases found so far in the country.

Originally published as Concerns ‘monkeypox’ virus could spread to Australia through international travel