HOSPITAL bosses have refuted rumours swirling online Southend Hospital had its first case of monkeypox.

Several posts on social media had claimed a patient had been admitted for the virus.

However, hospital bosses have said this is entirely untrue, and the hospital has not had a single patient for the virus to date.

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​The disease, which was first found in monkeys, can be transmitted from person to person through close physical contact and is caused by the monkeypox virus.

Echo: UK Health Security Agency of the stages of MonkeypoxUK Health Security Agency of the stages of Monkeypox

As of Wednesday, only 78 people are known to have caught it here in the UK.

Professor David Heymann, an expert on infectious disease epidemiology at The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said it will not spread in the same manner as coronavirus.

He told the PA news agency: “This will not be a pandemic as we know pandemics, but it certainly is possible that this disease has spread in many different parts of the world already and we are just beginning to identify it.

“It is not transmitted by air, we don’t believe, so it’s not a respiratory infection like SARS-Coronavirus-2 (Covid-19), so it will not spread in the same manner.

“It can be fatal in very less than one per cent of people, so it is not a fatal disease.”

The early symptoms can be hard to diagnose - a fever, headaches or back pain, for example.

Then a rash starts - often across the face then spreading to the hands, feet and other parts of the body.

It comes after WHO regional director for Europe Dr Hans Kluge said monkeypox cases in multiple European countries, the US, Canada and Australia are “atypical” for “several reasons”.

Firstly, the rare viral disease is spreading among people with no relevant travel history to areas where monkeypox is endemic, such as in west or central Africa, Dr Kluge said on Friday.