Director of Public Health Health Protection Assurance Report

Mpox is a rare disease that is caused by infection with mpox virus. Since May 2022, cases of mpox have been reported in multiple countries that do not usually have mpox virus in animal or human populations, including the UK. As of 30th November 3, 725 confirmed and highly probably mpox cases have been identified in the UK.

Table 17: Number of confirmed and highly probable monkeypox cases by region of residence, England, 6 May 2022 to 16 September 2022

There is currently no vaccine licensed in the UK or Europe for immunisation against mpox. As mpox is related to the virus which causes smallpox, vaccines developed for smallpox are considered to provide cross-protection against mpox. Based on the currently available vaccine supply and advice from JCVI, UKHSA recommends that the available doses of MVA-BN vaccine should be used as a selective vaccine strategy with the aim of interrupting transmission in the subset of individuals at increased risk.

The committee agreed that GBMSM at highest risk could be identified amongst those who attend sexual health services, using markers of high-risk behaviour like those used to assess eligibility for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), but applied regardless of HIV status. In view of the current epidemiology and vaccine supply available, wider vaccination in low-risk Gay, Bisexual, Men who have sex with men (GBMSM) individuals or the general population is not advised at this time.

Table 18: Vaccination doses given by cohort and region as of 20 September 2022

Investigation into monkeypox outbreak in England: technical briefing 23 September 2022