the times | Monday May 23 2022 5
News
People who have unprotected direct
contact with monkeypox cases should
self-isolate for 21 days and work from
home, according to guidance from the
UK Health Security Agency.
The advice applies to anyone who has
had sexual contact or household con-
tact with a symptomatic sufferer. The
agency said the guidance was intended
to provide principles for risk assessment
and the follow-up of the contacts of
confirmed cases.
Yesterday Belgium introduced a 21-
day quarantine for monkeypox, the first
country to apply such a measure for the
viral disease.
Dr Susan Hopkins, who advises the
UK Health Security Agency, told Sun-
day Morning on BBC1: “We are detect-
ing more cases on a daily basis and I’d
Monkeypox contacts to isolate for 3 weeks
Charlie Moloney like to thank all of those people who are
coming forward for testing to sexual
health clinics, to the GPs and emer-
gency department.”
Asked if there was community trans-
mission in the UK, she said: “Absolutely.
We are finding cases that have no iden-
tified contact with an individual from
west Africa, which is what we’ve seen
previously in this country.
“The community transmission is
largely centred in urban areas and we
are predominantly seeing it in individu-
als who self-identify as gay or bisexual
or other men who have sex with men.
“We would recommend to anyone
who’s having changes in sex partners
regularly, or having close contact with
individuals that they don’t know, to
come forward if they develop a rash.”
The agency has confirmed 20 cases
of the disease in Britain, with nine other
countries outside central and west
Africa also reporting outbreaks.
The disease, which was first found
in monkeys, can be transmitted from
person to person through close physical
contact — including sexual intercourse
— and is caused by the monkeypox
virus. Cases included a British
child who was in a critical condition at
a London hospital over the weekend.
Dr Claire Dewsnap, president of the
British Association for Sexual Health
and HIV, told Sky News: “Our response
is really critical here. There are going to
be more diagnoses over the next week.
How many is hard to say. What worries
me the most is that there are infections
across Europe, so this has already
spread. It could be really significant
numbers over the next two or three
weeks.”
President Biden said recent cases inEurope and the United States were
something “to be concerned about”. In
his first public comments on the dis-
ease, he added: “It is a concern in that if
it were to spread it would be consequen-
tial.”
The health authorities in Vienna also
revealed that Austria had detected its
first confirmed case and other countries
to have reported cases in the past few
days include Italy, Sweden, Germany,
The Netherlands, France, Israel, Switz-
erland and Australia.
The World Health Organisation said
there were about 80 confirmed cases
and 50 pending investigations but that
cases were likely to be reported as sur-
veillance expanded. Outbreaks report-
ed in 11 countries were atypical, the
organisation said, because they were
occurring in countries where monkey-
pox was not endemic.The virus, a less lethal relative of
smallpox, is endemic in some animal
populations in a number of countries,
and leads to occasional outbreaks in
resident populations and travellers. It is
most common in remote parts of
central Africa, where the death rate can
reach 10 per cent, and west Africa,
where deaths run at 1 per cent.
The organisation said: “Stigmatising
groups of people because of a disease is
never acceptable. It can be a barrier to
ending an outbreak as it may prevent
people from seeking care.”
Early symptoms include a high tem-
perature, a headache, chills, muscle
ache, sore throat, swollen glands and
exhaustion, according to the NHS. A
rash usually appears one to five days
after the first symptoms, which leads to
blisters. Symptoms tend to last two to
four weeks.In the shadow of the old city walls of
York, women are digging. One has
found Roman pottery, another is
hoping to find a Victorian penny and a
third looks up, recalling with childish
glee: “I found a human bone last week.”
They are on a dig with a twist because
they are not professionals, nor ama-
Dig your way out of depression with archaeology classes on NHS
teurs but patients who have been pre-
scribed archaeology on the NHS.
The classes, which are open to people
with depression and chronic mobility
problems, are run by the York Archaeo-
logical Trust with the aim of helping
patients to reconnect with the commu-
nity.
“It really is an intergenerational
project,” Katrina Gargett, the trust’s
community engagement manager,said. “It’s lovely to see them chatting —
maybe not sharing the same cultural
references, but we’re all learning from
each other.”
Participants have reported positive
results within weeks.
“It helps my mental health on a day-
to-day basis. I go home feeling lighter,”
said Jean, 58. She recommends using a
mattock as “great stress relief” or a
trowel for mindfulness.Ruth, 66, has been taking part for
four hours a week for six weeks and said
it helps her depression. “I had become a
recluse. Once I finished work, I used to
go to bed, but this is amazing.”
The classes take place in the garden
of an old care home that has been of-
fered by the local council. During the
Industrial Revolution it was the site of
leather tanneries. Those involved hope
to discover the remnants of an oldhouse. If digging does not appeal, there
are tasks such as washing finds, taking
photographs and doing research.
The benefits of archaeology have
been tested before, with the focus on
five tenets of wellbeing: physical activi-
ty, personal interaction, learning new
skills, doing good for others and being
mindful. Last month veterans from the
Falklands war with PTSD excavated a
battlefield and reported the benefits.Jack Blackburn History Correspondent
Kat Lay Health Editor
T
he English cottage
gardens have been
replaced by Tracey
Emin-style neon
text, a 15-tonne
block of ice and a soundtrack
of the soil, and the impact of
the big banks has been
muted by a pair of wealthy
anonymous backers (Fariha
Karim writes).
Chelsea Flower Show may
have returned to its
traditional May slot, but that
seems to be one of the few
links with the past.
This year more than half
the show gardens along Main
Avenue and Royal Hospital
Way and an entirely new
category of smaller garden,
All About Plants, have been
funded by a single charity.
Project Giving Back was
established a year ago by two
people, who are intent on
remaining anonymous, with
the aim of funding charitable
gardens at Chelsea after
seeing how fundraising
suffered during the
pandemic. They have pledged
to spend £12 million on 42
gardens over this year and
the next two years. All that is
known is that they are both
gardeners and one developed
a love for it from watching
Blue Peter as a child.
Many of the designers
creating gardens funded by
the project do not know whothe donors are and nearly all
of the charities being
supported say they would not
have been able to dream of a
show garden at Chelsea
without the funding.
The usual names such asMorgan Stanley or M&G
Investments on signposts
have been replaced by
Project Giving Back’s logo.
“It’s a huge statement,”
said Chris Beardshaw, who
has won 13 Chelsea goldmedals and was one of a few
designers approached by the
project to design a garden for
a charity of their choice,
which in his case was the
RNLI. “Anyone who puts
money into it in this way – itsays they’re pretty
committed to gardening.”
This year is also the first in
the show’s 109-year history
that there has been a female
chairman of judges.
The show opens to thepublic tomorrow and runs
until May 28.
Never underestimate the power
of the flower, Max Hastings,
page 29
A riot of colour, leading article,
page 31Charity
begins in
the garden
at Chelsea
High-concept pieces, a charitable revolution and,
of course, flowers mark Chelsea’s welcome returnJOSHUA BRATT FOR THE TIMES ; MARK THOMAS/SHUTTERSTOCK