Health officials in 'deep clean' of Fylde coast buildings as monkeypox precaution

Two cases of the serious condition have been confirmed on the Fylde coast - a patient who visited Blackpool Victoria Hospital after a trip to Africa and the nurse who treated him.

The nurse had visited her own GP's surgery in Fleetwood, and after her diagnosis all patients who had been at the surgery that day were offered the smallpox vaccination as a precaution.

In further precautions, Public Health England says it will now be sending specialist cleaning teams to buildings associated with the disease.

Dr Nick Phin, of PHE’s National Infections Service told a national newspaper: "The risk of transmission of monkeypox is very low, but we are unable to exclude the possibility of the virus being present in a patient’s home, if they were at home when they were unwell."

He added: "As a precaution, teams will be cleaning the homes of patients with confirmed monkeypox.

"During our investigation we have contacted and risk-assessed all those known to have potentially been in contact with the cases in order to determine what follow-up would be appropriate."

On Wednesday paramedics in protective bio-hazard suits were sent to a home in Fleetwood where a possible case of monkeypox had been reported.

However, after hospital tests it was confirmed that the patient did not have monkeypox.