Number of monkeypox cases in Ireland doubles to four

The number of Irish cases of monkeypox virus has risen to four, just days after the first case was identified.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre says the new cases are not unexpected given the presence of monkeypox cases in the UK and many European countries.

Public health doctors are following up close contacts of each case while they were infectious, it said on Wednesday. No further information about cases is being provided to maintain patient confidentiality.

“Public health risk assessments have been undertaken, and those who were in contact with the cases are being advised on what to do in the event that they become ill,” according to the HPSC.

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More than 500 confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported in Europe, North America and other countries worldwide over recent weeks. The vast majority do not have a travel link to a country where monkeypox is endemic. Many countries have reported that the cases are predominantly, but not exclusively, in men who self-identify as gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men, the HPSC said.

Monkeypox has been made a notifiable disease in order to help in the public health response, it added; this means doctors are required to notify local medical officers of cases.

The State’s response is being handled by a multidisciplinary incident management team established by the HSE after the international alert was first raised.

Monkeypox is spread via animal-to-human transmission, typically from an animal bite or eating improperly cooked meat. In rare cases, the virus can spread via human-to-human transmission. The first human case of monkeypox was reported in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and rarely occurs outside central and western African countries. There are two types of monkeypox: West African monkeypox and Congo Basin monkeypox. The Congo Basin type is more severe, but only the milder, west African type has been spread to countries outside Africa.

Infection can be spread from person-to-person through contact with bodily fluids and skin lesions of a monkeypox case.

Monkeypox is not very infectious, the HPSC says, as it takes close physical contact to spread between people.

“Contact with close family members or sexual contact poses the biggest risks of person-to-person spread. The risk of spread within the community, in general, is very low,” it advises.

Initial symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. The virus causes a rash that starts out on the face before spread on the body. Raised red spots quickly develop into little blisters, typically within one to three days of fever onset.

The HPSC says monkeypox infection is usually a self-limiting illness and most people recover within weeks, although severe illness can occur in people with very weak immune systems, and in very small babies.

There is no medical cure and treatment consists of relieving symptoms.