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Health authorities in England have discovered a new strain of mpox.
It appears to be a combination of two serious strains that have spread in previous outbreaks. Here's what we know so far.
Health officials in England have identified a newly evolved strain of mpox in a person who recently returned from traveling in Asia. The rare recombinant version of the virus blends two major global strains, the BBC reports.
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Genomic testing by the UK Health Security Agency found that the new virus variant contains genetic elements from clade Ib, which has been linked to more severe illness, and clade IIb, the strain responsible for the 2022 global outbreak. The virus does not yet have a formal name, and officials say they are still assessing its public health significance.
Related: What public health experts want you to know about the severe mpox strain appearing in the U.S.
“It’s a watch and wait situation at this point,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis told The Advocate on Monday. “It’s hard to say what it means other than vigilance needs to continue for mpox and [this] highlights the importance of a strong public health system to detect changes in the virus.”
Daskalakis is a leading infectious disease physician who previously served as the White House National Mpox Response Deputy Coordinator under President Joe Biden. In August, he resigned as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. In his resignation letter, he said that under the second Trump administration, the agency had been politicized beyond repair.
He told The Advocate at the time that the CDC, as it was known, “is over.” Last week, Daskalakis was named chief medical officer at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City, one of the United States’s largest providers of LGBTQ+ health care.
Related: Out CDC vaccine chief resigns, saying ‘enough is enough’ with Trump and RFK Jr.
The CDC’s mpox website, which was last updated on December 5, does not mention the new strain.
Daskalakis told The Advocate that the UK Health Security Agency’s website is a reliable public source for updates on the new variant.
The discovery in England follows alarming reporting by The Advocate in October, when a more severe strain of mpox, clade I, was confirmed in three hospitalized patients in Southern California with no travel history, marking the first known cases of local transmission of that strain inside the United States.
In an interview at the time, Daskalakis described the moment as an inflection point. “That means somewhere there’s been local transmission of a virus that we know can transmit and has a pretty good profile for being contagious,” he said.
All three California patients — two in Los Angeles and one in Long Beach — were hospitalized and unvaccinated. While their cases appeared unrelated, genomic sequencing showed the viral samples were genetically linked. Clade I, Daskalakis warned, is not necessarily more infectious, but significantly more severe than the clade II strain that drove the 2022 outbreak.
“The same communities who were most at risk in 2022, men who have sex with men, trans and nonbinary people, people living with HIV, are the ones who need to pay attention again,” he said.
Daskalakis described that moment as one of “watchful waiting,” not panic, but warned that sustained viral spread creates the precise conditions for mutation and recombination. The new recombinant strain now detected in England reflects exactly that risk: a virus adapting in real time as it moves through uneven global health systems.
Department of Health and Human Services press secretary Emily Hilliard did not respond to The Advocate’s request for comment.
Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University, told the BBC that the new strain represents what many experts feared would happen if mpox transmission continued unchecked. “The more mpox circulation we permit, the more opportunities the virus has to recombine and adapt, further entrenching mpox virus as a human pathogen that is not going away,” she said.
Vaccination remains the most effective protection against severe disease. Health officials estimate the mpox vaccine is 75 to 80 percent effective. While no studies yet confirm how well it protects against the new recombinant strain, officials believe a high degree of protection is likely.
Dr. Katy Sinka, head of sexually transmitted infections at UKHSA, said genomic testing made the discovery possible. “It’s normal for viruses to evolve,” she said. “Getting vaccinated is a proven effective way to protect yourself against severe disease.”
In October, Daskalakis stressed that the Jynneos vaccine remained fully protective. “Two doses are enough. You don’t need a booster right now.”
Mpox spreads through close physical contact and contaminated materials. While the 2022 outbreak disproportionately affected gay and bisexual men and transgender people, experts continue to stress that the virus is driven by exposure and not identity.
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