What happened to mpox?
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One year after the peak of UK infections, can we determine what actions brought mpox cases down?
A year ago, mpox – the virus formally known as monkeypox – was spreading in the UK. These infections largely impacted the gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men community, with news cases peaking at 350 per week. One of these individuals was Martin Joseph, who tells James Gallagher how a lack of accessible information and the stigma he observed during his illness inspired him to create a mpox-based podcast so others wouldn’t feel so alone.
Thankfully, 2023 so far has told a different story for mpox. Infections in the UK have remained relatively low, and in May, the World Health Organisation declared the mpox global health emergency over. But what helped bring the UK outbreak under control? James is joined by Jake Dunning, infectious diseases doctor and researcher at the University of Oxford, and Claire Dewsnap, sexual health doctor and president of the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), to discuss potential factors, takeaways and whether we are really ‘done’ with mpox.
How often should we go to the dentist? Listener Mary emailed insidehealth@bbc.co.uk to query the time needed between check-ups. James hears the evidence from Janet Clarkson, professor of dentistry at the University of Dundee, who explains the unlikely origins of our bi-annual appointments!
Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Julia Ravey Editor: Erika Wright Production Co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris Studio Producer: Donald McDonald
(Photo: Monkeypox Credit: Uma Shankar sharma | Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Greg Jenna and good news, Your Dead to Me is back for a new series. Here we go. Yes, we'll explore Emperor Nero's notorious reign with Professor Marybeard and Patton Oswald. I would not want my daughter having the remote control, not alone an empire. We'll dissect the decadent life of Philippe Duke-Dor-Leon with Tom Allen. I've often tried to pretend I'm an aristocrat and being very quickly knocked down. |
| 0:23.0 | And there'll be so much more with comedians like Olga Koch, Mike Mosniak and Rihalina. |
| 0:26.9 | I'm excited. |
| 0:27.6 | You're dead to me. |
| 0:28.5 | The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. |
| 0:30.9 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.4 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:38.8 | Hello there and welcome to the Inside Health podcast. I'm James Gallagher. |
| 0:43.5 | Now, I've got a pair of chunky questions to deal with this week in a bit. We'll be tackling a query about dentists from listener Mary. |
| 0:50.9 | She wants to know why does she have to go back every six months without fail. |
| 0:56.7 | But first, we're going to figure out whatever happened to monkeypox. |
| 1:01.2 | Now, a year ago, there was concerned the virus was taking off and it was all over the news. |
| 1:06.3 | Hello, welcome to BBC World News. |
| 1:08.6 | We start with some breaking news. |
| 1:10.3 | In the last hour, the head of the World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak of monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern. |
| 1:19.1 | On the 7th of May this year, the UK announced it had found a case of monkeypox in someone travelling back from Nigeria. |
| 1:26.8 | Monkeypox has now been detected in three more countries, bringing the total to 15. |
| 1:31.6 | On the infectious diseases ward, they've seen 30 patients, mainly gay and bisexual men. |
| 1:38.2 | We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of |
| 1:43.7 | transmission about which we understand too little |
| 1:47.2 | and which meets the criteria in the international health regulations. |
| 1:51.7 | 16,000 cases of the disease have been reported in more than 75 countries and five people have died. |
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