Mpox patient admitted to Royal Free Hospital Royal Free London

A patient with clade Ib mpox has been admitted to the high consequence infectious diseases (HCID) unit at the Royal Free Hospital.

The HCID unit is run by a specially-trained team of clinicians and is designed to ensure our staff can safely treat a patient with mpox.

This is the first detection of this clade of mpox in the UK. It is different from mpox clade II that has been circulating at low levels in the UK since 2022.

Clade Ib mpox has been widely circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in recent months and there have been cases reported in Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Sweden and Germany.

Dr Jake Dunning, consultant in infectious diseases at the Royal Free London, said: “The Royal Free Hospital is a specialist centre for treating patients with mpox. Our unit is run by a highly-trained and experienced team of doctors, nurses, therapists and laboratory staff and is specifically designed to ensure the safety of staff and other patients.”

The rest of the hospital is open and operating as normal.