The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged Britons to improve their hygiene practices as monkeypox spreads around the globe.
The public health warning comes after WHO declared the infectious disease a global health emergency on August 14 and Sweden confirmed its first case of the dangerous new variant at the heart of the latest outbreak.
GB News reports: WHO’s Europe regional director has ruled out a lockdown for now but other recommendations have been issued.
The health body has issued laundry guidance advising not to share towels and to wash them at high temperatures to kill germs.
The updated advice reflects the heightened risk posed by Clade 1b – the deadly new strain of mpox that originated among sex workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo last year.
Clade 2 – the variant behind the 2022 outbreak of mpox – was spreading exclusively among men having sex with men.
Clade 1b, however, is spreading via heterosexual contact, pregnant women and children, and occasionally from the environment to people via things and surfaces that a person with mpox has touched.
It’s therefore important to maintain hygiene standards.