June 7, 2022

expert reaction to Monkeypox being designated a notifiable disease by UKHSA

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has announced that monkeypox is to be listed as a notifiable disease in law from 8 June 2022.

Dr Hugh Adler, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Specialty Trainee in Infectious Diseases, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust, said:

“All monkeypox cases prior to now would have been discussed with UKHSA anyway, this update just formalises it. Diseases are notifiable for a variety of reasons, not just for severity, but because there’s a public health opportunity to interrupt transmission chains by intervening early. Monkeypox virus was always notifiable, it’s just that monkeypox disease (including suspected cases) wasn’t on the official list before now.”

Prof Francois Balloux, Professor of Computational Systems Biology and Director of UCL Genetics Institute, University College London (UCL), said:

“The UK has made monkeypox a notifiable disease from today on (June 8^th 2022). This means that all suspected monkeypox cases have to be reported. This is a sensible change in regulation as it improves surveillance and facilitates contact tracing. Though, it does not reflect a change in the current containment measures in place.”

Prof David Heymann, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said:

“Making monkeypox a notifiable disease suggests a desire to be sure to have reporting from all sectors (public and private) and all parts of the NHS. It suggests that the government wants to focus surveillance on the entire population – not only on the risk groups identified so far.  This will permit clear identification of all risk groups and help better understand the epidemiology and extent of spread.”

https://ukhsa-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/monkeypox-designated-a-notifiable-disease

Declared interests

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