Research and analysis

HAIRS risk assessment: monkeypox

Qualitative assessment of the risk that mammalian pets exposed to monkeypox virus present to the UK population.

Documents

Details

In May 2022, human-to-human transmission of Monkeypox virus was observed in several non-endemic countries, including the UK.

During a previous monkeypox incident in the UK during 2018, a pet management process had to be swiftly implemented for one affected household, without conducting a risk assessment a priori.

As the numbers of affected households in the UK relating to the May 2022 outbreak have increased, this has warranted a thorough assessment of the risk mammalian pets exposed to monkeypox virus pose to the people with whom they may come into contact.

A PDF version of this risk assessment is available on request from HAIRS@phe.gov.uk

Updates to this page

Published 27 May 2022
Last updated 30 August 2022 + show all updates
  1. Updated to reflect a change in monkeypox clade nomenclature and to acknowledge reports of human-to-animal transmission of monkeypox virus.

  2. First published.

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