London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Jul 15, 2025

UK needs urgent vaccine drive to curb monkeypox, campaigners say

UK needs urgent vaccine drive to curb monkeypox, campaigners say

Terrence Higgins Trust says action must be stepped up to prevent disease becoming endemic
Health authorities are underestimating the scale of the response required to stop monkeypox becoming endemic in the UK, sexual health campaigners have warned, as a new vaccination drive is launched.

The Terrence Higgins Trust urged the NHS and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to urgently pump cash into the system to pay more healthcare workers to administer vaccines. It also wants the number of doses ordered to be doubled to protect against a virus that has infected at least 2,208 people in the UK, according to the latest official figures.

Monkeypox is usually mild and is spread by close contact with an infected person or animal, but the risk of severe disease is higher in children, pregnant women and people who are immunosuppressed.

The British Association for Sexual Health and HIV has estimated that at least 125,000 people will need vaccines, including gay men living with HIV, sex workers, and staff in sexual health clinics and saunas. A double dose of the smallpox vaccine is needed. Last week the NHS announced that it had procured at least 100,000 more doses. It is asking people to wait until asked to come forward for a vaccine, and is prioritising gay and bisexual men, and men who have sex with men who exhibit high-risk behaviour. Campaigners want more walk-in clinics amid “impatience” among people at risk.

“There needs to be a [monkeypox] tsar charged with stopping this becoming endemic,” said Richard Angell, the campaigns director at the Terrence Higgins Trust. “We can’t accept that it gets into the system like chlamydia.”

In a letter to the health secretary, Steve Barclay, on Saturday, Labour’s shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “I am concerned you are not acting with the urgency required, and that the response so far has lacked coordination from DHSC and NHS England,” he said.

Labour said the vaccination programme was already diverting resources away from sexual health services’ delivery of core services including anti-HIV therapies and long-term contraceptions.

“Your department has committed to achieve an 80% reduction in new HIV infections in England by 2025,” Streeting said. “It would be a scandal if progress towards achieving this were to be put in jeopardy.”

A government spokesperson said the UKHSA was monitoring vaccine demand and would be able to quickly procure more doses as required.
Advertisement

“The NHS is already contacting those eligible for the vaccine and are urging people to take up the offer as soon as they’re contacted,” they said. “We have provided more than £3.4bn to local authorities through the public health grant, enabling them to invest in essential frontline services including sexual health services.”

On Saturday, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, declared the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern.

The body’s international health regulations emergency committee did not reach a consensus on whether the outbreak warranted the declaration, but Ghebreyesus said it was justified because the virus had “spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little”.

He said the risk of monkeypox was “moderate” globally and “high” in Europe and that there was “a clear risk of further international spread”.

The UKHSA said last week that transmission continues to occur primarily within interconnected sexual networks. “The most recent data suggests that the growth of the outbreak may have slowed,” it said. “This means that we continue to identify new infections, but at a more stable rate.”

In a statement on Friday, Steve Russell, the NHS director of vaccinations, said: “The NHS is now scaling up its plans to get people vaccinated, particularly in London … Thousands more people will be invited very shortly, with the number of clinics expanded too … We are asking people to wait to be contacted and to come forward at the earliest opportunity possible when invited to get vaccinated.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
President Trump Visits Flood-Ravaged Texas, Praises Community Strength and First Responders
From Mystery to Meltdown, Crisis Within the Trump Administration: Epstein Files Ignite A Deepening Rift at the Highest Levels of Government Reveals Chaos, Leaks, and Growing MAGA Backlash
Trump Slams Putin Over War Death Toll, Teases Major Russia Announcement
Reparations argument crushed
Rainmaker CEO Says Cloud Seeding Paused Before Deadly Texas Floods
A 92-year-old woman, who felt she doesn't belong in a nursing home, escaped the death-camp by climbing a gate nearly 8 ft tall
French Journalist Acquitted in Controversial Case Involving Brigitte Macron
Elon Musk’s xAI Targets $200 Billion Valuation in New Fundraising Round
Kraft Heinz Considers Splitting Off Grocery Division Amid Strategic Review
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
EU Proposes New Tax on Large Companies to Boost Budget
Trump Imposes 35% Tariffs on Canadian Imports Amid Trade Tensions
Junior Doctors in the UK Prepare for Five-Day Strike Over Pay Disputes
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Biden’s Doctor Pleads the Fifth to Avoid Self-Incrimination on President’s Medical Fitness
Grok Chatbot Faces International Backlash for Antisemitic Content
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
×