Thread by @kakape

Finally had a chance to read @UKHSA’s second technical briefing on #monkeypox.

It mostly reaffirms what we already knew or kind of knew. So just a quick thread.
Entire report is here:
gov.uk/government/pub…

@UKHSA There were 846 confirmed cases up to 22 June.

The vast majority (99%) continues to be in men:
Of 810 confirmed cases with gender information:
- 805 were male
- 5 were female

Here is a striking graph (not including all cases):

@UKHSA 321 patients answered detailed questionnaires. As you can see from the table, 96% were "gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men (GBMSM) strongly suggesting transmission in defined sexual networks, both internationally and domestically”

@UKHSA "Cases frequently reported history of a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the last year (54.2%) and 10 or more sexual partners in the last 3 months (31.8%), suggesting monkeypox is being transmitted in interconnected sexual networks that sustain STI transmission."

@UKHSA And importantly:
"Nowcasting modelling suggests that the epidemic is still growing, which is consistent with the data on cases by date of report.”

@UKHSA Like I said: No surprises, but I want to stress that this is really important information in itself!
The pattern we are seeing with this virus is new and it could easily throw up more surprises. That’s why the data UK scientists are gathering and publishing here is crucial!

@UKHSA It’s not gonna win me any friends, but I really don’t understand why other countries seem content waiting for the UK to do this.

I want to see this kind of data from Germany for instance, published timely and transparently.