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More details appeared about the NHS hospital worker currently in isolation at the Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary after contracting monkeypox.
The 40-year-old medical assistant, who was caring for an infected patient in Blackpool, is the third to be diagnosed in the UK, but the first to be infected in that country.
Mom, who was originally from Fleetwood, Lancashire, was rushed aboard the RVI on Tuesday by emergency personnel who wore biological equipment after developing flu-like symptoms.
She allegedly contracted the life-threatening illness by changing the patient's bedding, and her 50-year-old husband would also have fallen ill.
(Image: CDC / Getty Images)
Public Health England stated that the individual was involved in taking care of a patient at Blackpool Victoria Hospital earlier this month, before it became known he was carrying the infection.
This patient – who was only the second case of rare infection recorded in the UK – would have contracted the virus after his trip to Nigeria.
The first case was diagnosed a few days earlier, after a resident of Nigeria residing at a naval base in Cornwall exhibited symptoms.
Monkeypox does not spread easily between people and most people contracting the infection will recover within a few weeks, although some serious illness may occur in some people.
It kills up to 10% of people who suffer from it during epidemics, mainly young people.
Symptoms of the virus, similar to those of smallpox, include scab formation, fever, headache, muscle aches and chills, and they usually appear in a few days.
It is mainly transmitted to people from wild animals, including rodents and primates in Central and West Africa.
There is no specific treatment or vaccine, although smallpox vaccination has been very effective in preventing monkeypox, according to the World Health Organization.
(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
PHE had previously stated that there was "no connection in the UK" between the first two patients.
However, Dr. Nick Phin, deputy director of the National Infection Department at PHE, said the third case was "not totally unexpected".
Dr. Phin said, "This health worker has treated the patient before a diagnosis of monkeypox is made.
"We actively followed contacts for 21 days after exposure to detect anyone with a disease so they could be assessed quickly, so it's not totally unexpected that one case has been identified .
"This person has been isolated and we take a very careful approach to ensure that all contacts are well established."
There was a large outbreak of monkeypox in Nigeria in September 2017 and sporadic cases have been reported since then.
The World Health Organization describes it as a "rare viral zoonotic disease" that is found mostly in remote areas of central and western Africa, near tropical rainforests.
The first case identified involved a nine-year-old boy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as Zaire, in 1970.
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