Terrence Higgins Trust cuts ties with UK government over its approach to monkeypox
One of the UK’s leading sexual health charities, Terrence Higgins Trust, has cut ties with the government over its approach to the monkeypox outbreak.
It comes not long after news broke that Health Secretary Thérèse Coffey had rejected advice to buy extra vaccine doses due to value-for-money concerns. “A sustained, multi-channel campaign targeting gay and bisexual men is urgently needed to protect this group’s health from monkeypox and stop it from becoming endemic in the UK,” the charity said in a press release. “Terrence Higgins Trust has raised this consistently over several months with the UK Health Security Agency but it still hasn’t happened.” Terrence Higgins Trust added that it is “very concerned by the UKHSA’s lacklustre monkeypox communications strategy” and has therefore “decided to withdraw from its monkeypox communications meetings as, despite consistently raising our concerns, appropriate action has not been taken.” It will “remain committed” to the System-Wide Monkeypox Action Plan for England in the hopes that its concerns “will be addressed.” Monkeypox has been declared a “public health emergency of international concern” by the World Health Organization, the same status given to COVID-19 shortly after it began spreading.
As of 10 October, there were 3,523 confirmed and 150 highly probable cases of monkeypox in the UK, according to data from the UKHSA.
Despite these being in decline in recent weeks, sexual health services continue to report that they are being placed under vast pressure because of monkeypox testing and vaccination – resulting in limited capacity for things such as HIV and STI testing.
