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New 'surprising' case of mpox variant clade lb detected in England
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 7, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 7, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
A new case of mpox variant clade lb was found in England with no travel history. The risk remains low, and investigations are ongoing.
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's health security agency said on Monday another case of the mpox variant clade lb had been detected in England in a person who had no reported travel history or link with previously confirmed cases in the country.
The case was diagnosed in March and all contacts have been followed up and no further cases were identified, the agency said.
It said the risk to the population remained low and it is investigating how the individual, who is from northeast England, caught the infection.
Jonas Albarnaz of the Pirbright Institute described the case as "surprising" because prior infected individuals had recent travel history to an affected country or contact with someone who had.
Albarnaz added: "It's likely that it was acquired from another infected person, via direct contact either with skin lesions or with contaminated surfaces or objects."
The clade lb variant is a new form of the virus that is linked to a global health emergency declared by the World Health Organization in August.
In March, UKHSA said it no longer classified clade la and lb mpox as high consequence infection diseases.
(Reporting by Unnamalai L in Bangalore and Sam Tabahriti in London; editing by Mark Heinrich and Cynthia Osterman)
The article discusses a new case of the mpox variant clade lb detected in England, its implications, and ongoing investigations.
The UK's health agency states that the risk to the population remains low despite the new case.
The transmission source is under investigation, but it may have been acquired through direct contact with an infected person.
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