“Mpox is not the new COVID.” A high-ranking World Health Organization official said it flatly. Concern is rising anyway, because new cases have turned up outside Africa and the strain behind them appears to spread more easily.
Thailand confirmed an infection from the clade Ib variant, the one driving a growing epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the second country outside Africa to confirm a case of the variant. Sweden was the first, a week earlier, reporting an infection in a person who had traveled to the continent. The WHO had declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern the day before Sweden’s report.
The strain has now spread to at least 12 nations in Africa, one in Europe and another in Asia. This year, 13 African countries have reported more than 17,000 cases and 517 deaths. Congo accounts for more than 95% of both.
A warning from Europe
Hans Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe, rejected the idea that mpox might follow COVID’s deadly path. He added a caution: “We can and must tackle mpox together, across regions and continents.”
No clade I in the US yet
Mpox reached the United States in a global outbreak in 2022 and left 32,000 known infections and 58 deaths. All of those were the less virulent clade II type. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says no clade I infections have been found in the country and that the risk of this strain arriving is low.
Dr. Kyle Enfield, an associate professor and pulmonary disease expert at the University of Virginia, expects it to get here eventually, since international travel makes that likely. He sees a limit on how fast it can move. Mpox needs close skin-to-skin or other close contact, unlike respiratory diseases. “You’re likely to see a slower spread than you are in a disease like influenza, COVID and other respiratory diseases,” Enfield said.
Symptoms and treatment
Mpox comes from the same virus family as smallpox. It was named monkeypox because it was first found in a monkey in 1958. It passes from animals to humans and between people, usually through bodily fluids, close physical contact or contaminated objects.
The CDC says a rash often shows up on the hands, feet, chest, face, mouth and around the genital area, and the lesions can turn painful or itchy. Sore throat, cough, congestion, fever, chills, muscle aches and fatigue can also occur. Clade II usually brings milder disease and is less likely to kill. In the US, the CDC says, the virus is still mostly spread through sexual and intimate contact, and gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men face the highest risk.
Most infections last two to four weeks and clear up without treatment. No specific medication exists, though over-the-counter medicines and prescription mouthwashes can ease symptoms, and the CDC advises patients not to touch or scratch the rash. It recommends the two-dose mpox vaccine for at-risk groups in the US. An agency study found the approved JYNNEOS vaccine, given within a four-week interval, is highly effective at preventing the disease and softens symptoms in those who still catch it.
