Mpox update – August 2024

For patients concerned or worried about MPox, please consider the following information before you attend our sexual health clinic.

It is very important if you think you have MPox or have been a sexual contact of someone with MPox, or someone who has returned from Africa within the last 3 weeks that you telephone the clinic before attending for an appointment.

If you have visited Africa in the last three weeks please inform staff which countries you have visited so they can see whether it is linked to a country reporting laboratory-confirmed Clade I Mpox.

Clinical Symptoms of MPox

Have you got one or more of the following symptoms:

– rash or blisters (lesions) on any part of your body

– fever

– new lump/s in neck, groin or under your arm

If any if the above applies to you – call the clinic before attending. If a clinician is not available to speak with you immediately, one will call you back as soon as possible. During the telephone triage call back, the clinician will ask you about your recent travel and sexual history. If you have any spots, rash or lesions, they may also request you take a picture of these on your mobile phone and email to the clinic for assessment. 

If you suspect you have MPox, please isolate at home until our team make contact with you. Please cover any spots, rash or lesions if you share accommodation with other people, and try to stay in a room away from others on your own. 

If after telephone triage you are suspected to have symptoms or a significant exposure risk to MPox, you will be advised about the additional precautions we may have to take if you are invited for a clinic appointment. This may include being given an allocated time to attend and asked to call from outside the clinic to tell us you have arrived, where a staff member in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) will greet you and show you through to an assessment room. You may be asked to wear a face mask (we will supply) before entering the building.

For additional information on MPox, please see https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mpox/

Currently we do not have vaccination in stock to provide to patients. The Government is sourcing vaccine and will roll out to sexual health clinics in the coming weeks, so please keep an eye on our website for further announcements.