The UK is likely to see a ‘significant rise’ in monkeypox cases over the new few weeks, an expert has warned.

More than 100 confirmed or suspected cases of the virus have been reported in countries outside of Central and West Africa, including 20 in the UK.

Cases have been reported in the US, and several European countries including Switerzland which confirmed its first case of the virus on Saturday after an infected person became unwell, authorities said.

Elsewhere in Europe cases have been confirmed in the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Italy and Spain, where a number of cases have been linked to a sauna in Madrid.

‘Several patients’ in the Netherlands are understood to have contracted monkeypox a day after the country confirmed its first case.

While in Germany, at least two cases of monkeypox have been reported in Berlin after the country’s first case was reported in Munich on Friday.

The majority of cases in European cases have been reported in young men who have not travelled to Europe.

While in the US, it has been confirmed a patient in New York City had contracted monkeypox, after the state of Massachusetts confirmed its first case earlier this week.

Monkeypox, which was first found in monkeys, can be transmitted from person to person through close physical contact, including sex.

There are concerns the outbreak could have a massive impact on sexual health services.

Some UK health clinics are now stopping people walking in as they try to slow the spread of infections.

Dr Claire Dewsnap, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, said she expected to see a rise in cases over the coming days.

‘Our response is really critical here,’ she told Sky News.

‘There is going to be more diagnoses over the next week. How many is hard to say.

‘What worries me the most is there are infections across Europe, so this has already spread.

‘It’s already circulating in the general population. Getting on top of all those people’s contacts is a massive job.

‘It could be really significant numbers over the next two or three weeks.’

Dr Dewsnap said she expected more monkeypox cases to be identified around the UK.

‘I’m definitely expecting a significant rise over this next week,’ she added.

Dr Dewsnap said she is concerned about how the infection could affect services because staff who come in contact with sufferers are forced to isolate.

Shesaid clinic staff were ‘already under significant pressure’ before monkeypox was identified, making the situation worse.

‘It is already stretching the workforce and will have a massive impact if staff have to isolate if they are in close contact with someone who’s infected,’ Dr Dewsnap said.

‘In terms of the infection and its consequences for individuals, I’m not that concerned,’ she later told BBC Radio 4.

‘But I am concerned about our ability to maintain good sexual health services and access for everyone while still managing this new infection.’

Dr Dewsnap said some health clinic staff had received the smallpox vaccine, which can be effective against monkeypox, and talks are taking place about giving doses to ‘potential risk groups’.

Meanwhile, Professor Sir Peter Horby, director of the Pandemic Sciences Institute at Oxford University, described the current monkeypox outbreak as ‘an unusual situation’, because the virus is being transmitted within communities outside of Central and West Africa.

‘It’s transmitted by close person-to-person contact and, in the past, we have not seen it being very infectious,’ Sir Peter said.

‘What’s unusual about what we’re seeing now is that we’re seeing transmission occurring in the community in Europe and now in other countries, so it’s an unusual situation where we seem to have had the virus introduced but now have ongoing transmission within certain communities.’

He added: ‘It would appear that there is some element of sexual transmission perhaps with just the very close contact between people and the skin lesions because a large proportion of the current cases are being detected in gay and bisexual men.

‘So it’s very important that we get the message across that if people have unusual skin lesions that they do seek attention quickly so that we can control this.

‘The important thing is that we interrupt transmission and this doesn’t become established in the human population in Europe.’

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