The United Kingdom today reported its first imported clade 1b mpox case, a patient who recently traveled to countries in Africa that are experiencing infection in community settings.

In a statement, the UK’s Health Security Agency (HSA) said the case was detected in London and that the patient has been transferred to the Royal Free Hospital’s High Consequence Infectious Diseases unit.

Susan Hopkins, MB BCh, chief medical advisor at the HSA, said, “The risk to the UK population remains low, and we are working rapidly to trace close contacts and reduce the risk of any potential spread. In accordance with established protocols, investigations are underway to learn how the individual acquired the infection and to assess whether there are any further associated cases.”

The UK is the fifth country to report an imported case of clade 1b monkeypox, alongside Sweden, Thailand, Germany, and India.

Different than clade 2 strain spreading globally, the novel clade 1b virus was detected amid a large outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in April and is circulating alongside other clades and in Uganda.

Bavarian Nordic launches mpox trial in children, WHO adds more tests to EUL list

In other mpox developments, Bavarian Nordic announced yesterday that the first patients have been vaccinated in a clinical trial to assess the safety and immunogenicity of the Jynneos vaccine in children ages 2 to 11 years old. The trial is expected to enroll 460 participants, mainly in the DRC but with some sites to be included from Uganda.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today that it has added two more mpox PCR tests to its emergency use listing. They include Xpert Mpox from Cephid, which can be used on GeneXpert systems and deliver a result in 40 minutes. The other is the cobas MPXV assay, developed by Roche for use on cobas 6800/8800 systems. The test can detect both mpox clades and deliver a result in less than 2 hours.

A study yesterday in Frontiers shows that university students experienced increased psychological distress during COVID-19 but used fewer mental health support services. This is the first known study to use a national dataset to compare use of mental health services pre- and post-pandemic. 

More U.S. college students suffered from mental health concerns during the pandemic, but fewer received necessary mental health treatment.

"More U.S. college students suffered from mental health concerns during the pandemic, but fewer received necessary mental health treatment," said first study author Elaine Russell, from George Mason University's College of Public Health, in a press release from that school.

The findings were based on data from fall 2019, early spring 2020, and spring 2021 surveys. Participants were limited to full-time undergraduate students aged 18 to 24 attending four-year universities in the United States. A total of 88,986 completed the National College Health Assessment before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 96,489 completed it during the pandemic.

High levels of stress during pandemic 

The participants were given a survey to assess mental health, stress, and loneliness, and asked how and if they accessed on-campus mental health services. Across all measures, mental health was worse in 2021 compared to 2019 and 2020. Of note, rates of students suffering from severe psychological distress increased from 19.0% pre-pandemic to 26.8% in spring 2021.

"During the peak of COVID-19, 82.4% of students reported experiencing moderate to high stress over the past 30 days, compared to 75.8% pre-COVID-19, which was also found to be statistically significant," the authors wrote. 

Due, in part, to campus shutdowns, students' rates of on-campus use of mental health services decreased from 58.6% to 44.4%, and rates of using services in the local community near campus decreased from 24.8% to 21.9%. 

Non-White and male students were less likely to use mental health services after the pandemic began compared to female students.

"This research study is important in helping to identify students who were at the greatest risk of psychological distress and least likely to access necessary mental health services," the authors concluded.

Amid unprecedented flooding across several parts of the country, South Sudan has declared a cholera outbreak, with 50 suspected cases reported so far, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

The outbreak’s location is Renk County in northern South Sudan, a border area where refugees are fleeing armed conflict in neighboring Sudan, the WHO said.

Flooding has affected more than 81,000 people and has displaced more than 46,000 in Upper Nile state, which includes Renk County.

South Sudan has activated a cholera task force, and the WHO said it is working closely with health officials to provide support, including the establishment of two cholera treatment units. The WHO also said it has deployed two rapid response teams and has delivered 12 metric tons of emergency kits, enough to treat 74,000 people.

Cholera activity and outbreaks have been on the rise since 2021, driven by complex factors that include population displacements and natural disasters. In a recent report, the WHO said cases this year are down from 2023 numbers, but deaths have more than doubled.