Public Health England (PHE) have said a person in the south west has been diagnosed with a rare viral infection called Monkeypox, reports Cornwall Live.
The patient contracted the infection whilst visiting Nigeria and was staying in the south west of England before being transferred to a specialist high consequence infectious disease centre at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London.
As a precautionary measure, PHE experts are working closely with NHS colleagues to implement rapid infection control procedures, including contacting people who may have been in close contact with the individual to provide information and health advice.
This includes contacting passengers who travelled in close proximity to the patient on the same flight back to the UK. If passengers aren't contacted then no action is needed.
Dr Meera Chand, consultant microbiologist at Public Health England, said: "Monkeypox does not spread easily between people and the overall risk to the general public is very low. We are following up with those who have had close contact with the patient to offer advice and to monitor them as necessary.
PHE and the NHS have well established and robust infection control procedures for dealing with cases of imported infectious disease and these will be strictly followed to minimise the risk of transmission."
This isn't the first time the virus has been detected in the UK. PHE reported the first case of monkeypox in September 2018 in Cornwall.
Monkeypox is a rare disease usually reported in central and west Africa. In most cases, it's a mild condition which will resolve on its own and have no long-term effects on a person's health. Most people recover in a few weeks.
Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. A rash can develop, which often begins on the face, then spreads to other parts of the body. The rash changes and goes through different stages before finally forming as a scab which later falls off.
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