UK strategy for mpox control, 2022–2023

Prior to 2022, there was limited person-to-person transmission of mpox within the UK. In 2022, a global outbreak of mpox (previously known as monkeypox) was caused by the clade IIb strain. During this outbreak, the first cases of community transmission within the UK were confirmed in May 2022. 

In June 2022, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) published a strategy to help control the spread of the virus. It recommended that some gay and bisexual men who were at higher risk of exposure should be offered the smallpox vaccine Imvanex. Transmission is through close or intimate contact, and while anyone could contract the virus, data at the time suggested that there were higher levels of transmission among men who had sex with men. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation endorsed this strategy. 

UK strategy for mpox (monkeypox) control, 2022 to 2023 

On 8 December 2022, the government published UK strategy for mpox control, 2022 to 2023, agreed between the UKHSA, Public Health Scotland, Public Health Wales and Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland). The long-term goal was to eliminate person-to-person transmission. The four strategic aims over the next year were to reduce harm from mpox, reduce transmission within the UK and transmission from imported cases, and work with other countries to reduce the global burden of mpox.  

The UKHSA reported that up to 31 December 2022, there were 3,732 confirmed and ‘highly probable’ mpox cases reported in the UK. The majority of which were in England (3,553), 34 were in Northern Ireland, 97 cases in Scotland and 48 in Wales. 

Impact and later developments 

Transmission of mpox reduced in 2023 and 2024 – over this period there were a total of 429 cases of mpox clade IIb in the UK.