Healthbeat

Why mpox is persisting around the world

2025-11-06T12:00:00+00:00

Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s Global Checkup in your inbox a day early.

Hello from Nairobi.

The short rainy season has settled over the Kenyan highlands, and the orchids and vanilla vines in my back yard are fully in bloom. (After a decade, I think I’m finally used to “seasons” being marked by precipitation, rather than temperature.)

A little warning here: This week’s report doesn’t shy away from the heavy stuff — a virus on the move, a heating planet, and a worsening war — but it ends with two hopeful breakthroughs in the fight against drug-resistant disease. So stick around.

My name is William Herkewitz, and I’m a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. This is the Global Health Checkup, where I highlight five of the week’s most important stories on outbreaks, medicine, science, and survival from around the world.

With that, as we say in Swahili: karibu katika habari — welcome to the news.

Mpox’s next act

The World Health Organization has announced a new tangle of worrying trends for the viral infection mpox. First up, cases are on the rise with over 44,000 detected infections this year. And a new, faster-spreading strain has just been discovered in locations including Malaysia, Namibia, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and my home state of California, The Guardian reports.

To complicate things, all this comes as we are exiting a major outbreak of the disease, which crested and broke in 2022 and 2023. So what exactly do all these new reports mean? Are we moving backward, or seeing something else entirely?

Disease breakdown: Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) is a virus first detected in the 1950s in lab monkeys in Denmark. The first known human case occurred in the 1970s in central Africa, and for about 50 years the virus quietly circulated on the continent through contact with infected animals. That changed in this decade, when in 2022 a strain of the virus made an evolutionary leap, and started spreading through physical and sexual contact between people. The mpox illness can cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, and in a minority of cases, death. Luckily, an effective vaccine exists!

I reached out to Dr. Michael Marks, a researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to understand how to digest this news.

The first thing Marks explained is that the appearance of mpox in new places or new countries isn’t all that unexpected, even with a brand-new strain in the mix. This is partly because close-contact transmission thrives especially well in “sexual networks where there are multiple partners and rapid partner change,” he said. In practice, that’s meant mpox will continue to spread in fits and starts, erupting when it leaps to a new network. (Especially among networks of gay and bisexual men, who remain most at risk purely from behavioral factors.)

While the 2022–23 outbreak largely subsided due to vaccinations and community awareness, Marks says the virus never really went away, and “mpox continued to be transmitted at low levels.” Moving forward, “we’ll likely have ongoing transmission in many countries, with periodic outbreaks when mpox reaches a new susceptible community,” Marks explains.

What should you know about the newest strain?

As Healthbeat has reported, it’s called clade 1b, and it’s a potentially deadlier branch of the virus, which has independently evolved the same trick as the 2022 strain, spreading efficiently from person to person. Scientists say the risk of that combination (higher severity and better transmission) is what has them worried.

The takeaway? For most people, the risk remains low. But if you’re in networks where hookups are frequent and partners change often, there is an increasing risk of catching and spreading the virus.

Looking forward, Marks was blunt about our long-term outlook. “Elimination isn’t meaningfully on the cards,” he said. The virus survives in wild animals, and there’s little appetite or funding for the mass vaccination it would take to entirely stop it. “Mpox isn’t going away [so] we need to move from a mindset of ‘there’s an outbreak’ to ‘this is an ongoing, persistent issue that needs a sustained response.’”

That response, he said, will hinge on vaccination, the best tool by far.

Planet with a fever

The world just logged its first year above 1.5 °C of warming, and the health toll is catching up. That is, according to TIME magazine’s report on The Lancet Countdown, an annual global assessment that tracks how climate change is affecting human health.

How bad is it?

Not great. “Twelve of the 20 indicators for the health risks and impacts of climate change in the report set concerning new records.” For example, last year the average human being experienced 16 more dangerously hot days than would have occurred without climate change.

Most stark: That heat is now driving a 63% rise in annual heat deaths since the 1990s, killing roughly 546,000 people each year. That’s more than one person every minute. “The health impacts caused by our changing climate have reached unprecedented levels that cannot be ignored.”

The research team also warns that the world is tracking toward “2.7°C of heating by the end of the century — if not more — and emissions keep rising,” which would be a catastrophe well past what human systems can adapt to.

But there are bright spots. “One thing that’s often overlooked is just how much progress even limited climate action has already achieved in terms of saving lives,” the report’s lead author, Dr. Marina Romanello, told me. For example, “the shift away from coal in high-income countries between 2010 and 2022 is estimated to have prevented around 160,000 premature deaths each year from air pollution.”

“These stories of success and solutions deserve more attention,” she adds. “They show that climate action is not only possible, but already underway — with enormous health benefits.”

Hospital falls under attack in Sudan’s overlooked war

I’ll level with you, readers. I’m flagging this next story not just for its health angle, but because it deserves far more international attention than it’s getting.

As background: Sudan’s civil war, well into its second year, is pitting the country’s armed forces against a powerful paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces. Throughout the conflict, the fighting has been marked by mass displacement, starvation, and widespread civilian killings and human rights abuses. All of this is happening with no end in sight, and zero international appetite to forcefully intervene on behalf of civilians. But while the conflict has been ongoing for years, several foreign correspondents who cover Sudan have told me this week that even they’re alarmed at how fast things are unraveling, and how sharply the death toll is rising.

This leads us to our story: On Thursday, the WHO announced that “the last functioning hospital in the Sudanese city of al-Fashir was raided, and hundreds are feared to have been killed there after a paramilitary force overran the city,” Reuters reports. The death toll for the hospital has been reported as high as 430 people, with additional medical workers being held for ransom. The destruction has effectively obliterated the region’s final lifeline for trauma care. On Monday, the International Criminal Court announced it is probing these reports.

It’s a horrifying report. If this story leaves you with anything, let it be a reason to pay attention. Sudan’s crisis is deepening while the world effectively looks away. Maybe awareness alone will not be enough, but it’s the smallest act that still matters.

This virus is on our side

On to decidedly cheerier news.

A research team led by Dr. Loren Miller of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center has just shown that bacteria-hunting viruses (known as bacteriophages) can help treat deadly bloodstream infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, an organism notoriously resistant to antibiotics, Reuters reports.

The trial was on 42 patients, all of whom were given antibiotics. Two-thirds were also “treated intravenously with a ‘cocktail’ of [bacteriophage] viruses.” The study showed that the virally infected patients had fewer relapses, shorter stays in intensive care, and quicker recovery. While this is not the first time bacteriophages have been used in clinical trials, Miller says the trial serves as a “potential paradigm shift in how we treat antibiotic-resistant infections.”

(It’s worth noting that the study was a “phase II clinical trial,” which means it’s still early in the testing process. Phase II trials usually involve a relatively small group of patients and are designed to see if a treatment seems to work and is safe enough to keep studying. It’s a crucial step, but not final proof.)

Still, if this approach succeeds in larger trials, it could meaningfully extend the lifespan of our current antibiotic arsenal and provide a new weapon in the fight against multidrug‐resistant bacteria.

For once, I’m on team virus.

Antibiotics in the dirt

In even stranger multidrug‐resistant bacteria news: Scientists just dug up a new, powerful antibiotic … quite literally.

The journal Nature reports that a research team at the University of Warwick in the UK discovered a breakthrough while studying a soil bacteria called Streptomyces coelicolor (which is famous for churning out a well-known antibiotic.)

When the scientists looked at one of the bacteria’s unfinished chemicals, which is produced midway through making its usual antibiotic, they found something shocking: That new compound obliterated otherwise drug-resistant bacteria at microscopic doses.

The scientists (who could have conceivably unearthed a better name) are calling this novel compound “premethylenomycin C lactone.”

For now, the researchers don’t even know how this stuff works, only that it does. “We still don’t really know where it targets. We think it targets the cell wall in some way,” says Lona Alkhalaf, a chemical biologist with the research team. Next up is tests to see whether it’s safe for human cells and continuing research for how to make it in bulk.

Who knew? The next great medicine might not come from good old-fashioned mud.

See you next week!

William Herkewitz is a reporter covering global public health for Healthbeat. He is based in Nairobi. Contact William at wherkewitz@healthbeat.org.

Health alert shows growing concerns about type of mpox spreading in Europe and California

2025-10-28T15:55:59+00:00

Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free national newsletter here.

European health officials are warning that they have identified a concerning type of mpox virus spreading locally in four countries. The announcement follows the discovery of similar mpox cases spreading locally in California.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), in a public alert issued Friday, said that locally acquired cases of a type of clade I mpox virus have been identified in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

It is the first time this type of mpox has been detected spreading within the European Union and European Economic area, the health agency said. Previously, cases of this form of the virus were associated with international travel outside the region.

Will new type of mpox virus spread beyond California? Many at-risk people aren’t vaccinated.

Outbreaks of clade I mpox have been ongoing in parts of Central and Eastern Africa.

There are two types of mpox, clade I and clade II, and both are spread through close, intimate and sexual contact and cause potentially painful rashes. During 2022-23, outbreaks across the United States involved the milder clade II type of the virus, which continues to circulate here at low levels.

The clade I type of the virus has the potential to cause more severe disease, health officials have said.

While an mpox vaccine provides protection against both the clade I and clade II virus, Healthbeat reported last week that federal data show in most U.S. states, more than half of people at highest risk of mpox infections were not vaccinated in the wake of the 2022-23 outbreaks.

Here are four takeaways from the ECDC’s new alert.

Clade I mpox has been detected spreading locally in Europe

The ECDC says cases of mpox clade I have been spreading locally in European countries, rather than just being brought in by travelers.

Spain reported its first locally acquired clade I case on Oct. 10. The Netherlands reported a case on Oct. 17. Since then, two cases were reported in Italy and one in Portugal. The patients started showing symptoms between Sept. 16 and Oct. 7.

Among these five patients, all men, none had any history of travel to countries with known transmission of clade I mpox. Of the four patients whose vaccination status was known, only one was vaccinated against mpox.

“These new cases have been reported among men, some of whom identify themselves as men who have sex with men, with no recent travel history to mpox-endemic areas,” the ECDC said. “This indicates that transmission may be ongoing in sexual networks among men who have sex with men in European countries.”

In its alert, the ECDC noted that local transmission of clade Ib cases has also been detected in California among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men and their social networks.

European risk assessment says more cases are likely to be identified

An mpox threat assessment, also released Friday by the ECDC, said the overall risk of mpox clade I infection in Europe is “moderate for men who have sex with men and low for the general population.”

But the agency noted there is “substantial uncertainty” about the extent of transmission within sexual networks. “In general, the likelihood of exposure is higher with a higher number of casual sexual partners, which is supported by historical data from the mpox outbreak in 2022/23,” the assessment said.

The assessment said it is likely there are additional mpox clade I cases that have not yet been detected.

The severity of locally spread clade I mpox is unclear

While the three recent clade I cases identified in California all required hospitalization, the ECDC said the five European cases all had mild symptoms.

Clade I mpox is divided into two subtypes: clade Ia and clade Ib. The recently identified European and California cases are all clade Ib mpox, the ECDC said.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infections with clade 1a mpox, especially among children younger than 15, have occurred in Central Africa through contact with infected dead or live animals and through household transmission or patient care.

Clade Ib was more recently identified as spreading through intimate and adult sexual contact.

The ECDC, in its health alert Friday, said: “Some uncertainties remain regarding the transmissibility and clinical severity of clade Ib” compared to the clade II virus that has circulated since the 2022-23 outbreaks.

Before the recent locally transmitted clade I cases were identified, there had been 29 travel-related clade I cases reported to the ECDC, with seven of them needing hospitalization. But the agency said it is difficult to estimate the severity of disease based on such small numbers.

The ECDC said the severity of clade I infections may be worse among those living with HIV, especially if they are receiving inadequate treatment. People with other underlying health conditions, including suppressed immune systems, and people over the age of 65, may also be at increased risk for severe disease.

Awareness, vaccination can protect against mpox

Both the clade I and clade II types of mpox cause a rash that may look like pimples or blisters. The rash, which may involve a few lesions or many, can appear on any part of the body, including the hands, face, mouth, chest, or near genitals.

Mpox may also cause flu-like symptoms. The virus is usually spread through close contact, such as skin-to-skin contact and during sex, health officials say.

“If an unusual rash develops, they should seek medical help by contacting a health care professional for testing and advice. It is also important to avoid close physical or sexual contact with others until they are symptom-free,” the ECDC said.

Vaccination is the best protection against both clade I and clade II, health officials in Europe and the United States said.

The mpox vaccine in the United States, called JYNNEOS, is available through retail pharmacies, usually with advance appointments, as well as through clinics, health care providers, and public health departments. Locations that may offer the vaccine can be found at: www.EmpoweredAgainstMpox.com.

The ECDC has called for European countries to ensure lab testing is easily accessible, especially in locations that serve men who have sex with men, and that those at higher risk are advised to get vaccinated.

Alison Young is Healthbeat’s senior national reporter. You can reach her at ayoung@healthbeat.org or through the messaging app Signal at alisonyoungreports.48

Will new type of mpox virus spread beyond California? Many at-risk people aren’t vaccinated.

2025-10-22T17:45:27+00:00

Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free national newsletter here.

As California health officials investigate an outbreak of a more severe type of mpox virus, federal data indicate that across the country most of the people at highest risk of exposure haven’t been vaccinated against the disease.

In most states – including Georgia, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and New Jersey – more than half of at-risk people remained unvaccinated in the wake of the 2022-23 U.S. outbreak of a milder form of the virus that infected more than 30,000 people, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates last updated in January 2024.

Mpox, which causes a rash and sores that can be painful, is spread mostly through close, intimate, and sexual contact.

Fewer than one-quarter of at-risk people in most states were fully vaccinated with two doses of the mpox vaccine, the CDC data show. Even in the jurisdictions with the highest levels of people fully vaccinated against mpox – the District of Columbia, at 68%, New York City, at 47%, and California at 43% – many at-risk people were not fully vaccinated.

It’s likely that mpox immunization rates are even lower today, as the earlier mpox outbreak has faded from the headlines and is “out of sight, out of mind,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.

“It’s a wake-up call for at-risk populations to be up-to-date on their vaccines, because a lot of people are not,” Chin-Hong said. “They might have gotten the first shot back in 2022 when everyone was afraid, and people knew a lot of people who had it.”

None of the three Southern California residents hospitalized in the new outbreak were vaccinated against mpox, the California Department of Public Health said in an email to Healthbeat.

California cases of clade I are first in the U.S. without international travel

California public health officials last week began warning that a more virulent type of mpox that has primarily caused disease in African countries, called clade I, now appears to be spreading from person to person in their state.

The three California cases identified with clade I infections didn’t have any recent history of international travel, local, county and state health officials have said. They also didn’t have any connection to each other. Two lived in Los Angeles County, one in Long Beach. All are recovering from their infections, officials said.

They are the first reported clade I infections in the United States that don’t involve international travel, the California Department of Public Health said. These cases indicate that clade I is spreading in the community, “primarily impacting communities of gay and bisexual men, and other men who have sex with men, as well as their social networks,” the department said.

New research raises concerns about local malaria infections in U.S.

The clade I form of the virus can cause more severe disease than clade II type, which was involved in the 2022-23 outbreak. Vaccination and public health education campaigns caused a sharp drop in those clade II cases, but that form of the virus continues to circulate at low levels across the country.

Both forms of mpox, formerly called monkeypox, cause rashes that can initially look like pimples or blisters that may appear on the hands, face, mouth, chest, or near genitals. Mpox also can cause flu-like symptoms. The risk of severe disease is highest among people with weakened immune systems.

The two-dose mpox vaccine, called JYNNEOS, provides protection against both clade I and clade II mpox, health officials said. For those who have already received two doses, a third booster shot is not recommended.

At-risk people encouraged to get mpox vaccine

While California health officials said the risk to the public is low, they are encouraging people at increased risk of mpox exposure to get vaccinated, including people who are gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men, transgender, and non-binary people, and people who have been exposed to someone with mpox.

The virus primarily spreads through close contact with an infected person, such as through intimate physical contact during massages, cuddling, or sex, or sharing a living space or personal items with someone who has mpox. Casual contact, such as interactions in an airplane, office, or store, are unlikely to spread the virus, California’s state health department said.

There is no indication so far that the clade I outbreak in California is spreading to other states.

“We have to be vigilant, but not scared,” Chin-Hong said. “If it gets into the right place at the right time, like what happened in 2022, it could potentially take off again.”

While California has only identified three cases of clade I mpox, Chin-Hong said there are probably more people who haven’t sought treatment or been diagnosed, despite painful sores and other symptoms that can take three weeks to run their course.

Chin-Hong said he found it interesting that all three of the identified cases were hospitalized.

“Either it’s something about clade I, or it could be that the people who were identified happened to have more serious cases,” he said, “and people who had milder cases just didn’t bother to come to see anybody about it.”

The mpox vaccine is available across the United States through a mix of public health departments, community clinics, and retail pharmacies, said Mark Clarke, a spokesperson for Bavarian Nordic, which makes the JYNNEOS vaccine.

The vaccine, which is given as two injections four weeks apart, is generally covered by health insurance, Clarke said, and those without coverage may find free or reduced-cost vaccine from local health departments and LGBTQ+ focused clinics. The company’s locator tool www.EmpoweredAgainstMpox.com – provides locations that may offer the vaccine.

Spokespeople for CVS and Walgreens told Healthbeat that in most cases, people seeking mpox vaccination will need to make an advance appointment because it can take a few days to ship the vaccine to their local pharmacy.

Chin-Hong said the emergence of what appear to be locally spread clade I cases in California illustrate the broader importance of public health activities in the United States and around the world.

By the United States helping other countries combat infectious diseases, he said, it helps protect against the spread of diseases spreading here.

“We need to continue to invest in public health. That’s what keeps us safe,” he said. He noted that the California cases have been identified as clade I in the middle of a federal shutdown that has impacted the CDC. “You need to invest in people and surveillance, diagnostics and prevention with vaccines to keep everyone safe.”

The CDC has been doing genomic testing to learn more about the virus that infected each of the clade I cases in California, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has said.

The CDC did not respond to questions from Healthbeat about mpox vaccination rates across the country and the potential for clade I spreading beyond California. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Healthbeat to seek information about the new California outbreak from state health officials and the CDC webpage about the disease.

When asked about the impact of the federal shutdown on the mpox outbreak response, the California Department of Public Health told Healthbeat by email that the department continues to work with available staff at CDC, “but the recent federal government shutdown and other actions at the federal level have added a layer of uncertainty to the current work environment.”

Alison Young is Healthbeat’s senior national reporter. You can reach her atayoung@healthbeat.orgor through the messaging appSignalat alisonyoungreports.48

Fulton County health officials warn mpox is still circulating

2025-07-30T19:34:44+00:00

This story was originally published at Capital B Atlanta. Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free Atlanta newsletter here.

Ever since the 2022 global outbreak of mpox, the number of cases has died down in the United States, but Fulton County officials warn that mpox hasn’t fully left Atlanta.

At a Fulton County Board of Health meeting last week, the county’s director of epidemiology, Sasha Smith, stated that mpox is one of the diseases that her team is keeping a close eye on as a number of cases sporadically fluctuated in Fulton County from July 2024 to June 2025.

“We’re still conducting surveillance, but there were 48 cases reported, and we did see a peak during October and March,” said Smith at the meeting. “It’s still circulating in the community. I think that’s the important part.”

Mpox is a disease caused by a virus that is in the same family as the virus that causes smallpox. Its main symptom is a rash that can occur on the hands, feet, chest, face, mouth, or genitals, and it can be accompanied by other symptoms like fever, chills, and swollen lymph nodes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At the time of the 2022 outbreak, there were 818 cases reported in the county. After the vaccine became available to at-risk populations in the late summer of 2022, the number of cases drastically dropped to 31, but picked back up in 2024 to 48, according to Smith.

DeKalb County has the highest rate of TB in Georgia. A new clinic aims to help.

One of the ways the disease can be contracted is from prolonged human-to-human contact, such as kissing, cuddling, or touching parts of the body with mpox sores.

During the outbreak, the LGBTQ community was a population particularly vulnerable to contracting the disease, and gay and bisexual men of color were especially at risk as they were disproportionately represented in the number of cases, according to the CDC. While Black people accounted for 12% of the U.S. population, they accounted for 33% of mpox cases at the time, according to a report by KFF.

In Georgia, that disparity held true, as Black, gay men were disproportionately impacted by mpox in 2022. Black men made up more than 80% of the mpox cases, whereas about 30% of Georgia’s population was Black in 2022.

Of the 48 cases reported in Fulton County from July 2024 to June 2025, 96% of the cases were male, according to Smith.

“Women also contract the infection, but disproportionately, it’s always been gay, bisexual men,” said Smith in an interview with Capital B Atlanta.

She said that while the county is not anticipating a major outbreak of mpox cases, she stressed that at-risk residents should get vaccinated if they haven’t already.

Justin Smith, the director of the Campaign to End AIDS at the Positive Impact Health Center in Atlanta, said the communities that have been most impacted by mpox are Black, gay men living with HIV and specifically those who are experiencing homelessness.

“The most vulnerable people had the worst outcomes, which in some ways you would sort of understand and sense that folks that have weaker immune systems and have less access to resources that would help keep them healthy — namely having a home — would have the worst outcomes,” said Justin Smith in an interview with Capital B News Atlanta.

According to the CDC, people with HIV are overrepresented in mpox cases in the United States and are at increased risk of severe mpox and death if they contract the disease. In Georgia, of the cases reported in 2022, 60% of mpox cases were contracted in people that were HIV-positive.

As HIV researchers and advocates have warned that looming budget cuts to HIV surveillance will negatively impact the state’s ability to tackle the HIV epidemic, Justin Smith said he’s worried that these cuts could also affect the state’s ability to effectively respond to mpox cases.

“To me, the danger that we face as we continue to reduce the amount of resources that flow into our public health system, we will have a system that is less well-equipped to be able to respond to health threats in the future,” he said.

Alyssa Johnson is Capital B Atlanta’s enterprise reporter.

Georgia health workers handling flu surge, rare mpox case, measles outbreak

2025-02-14T19:45:43+00:00

Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free Atlanta newsletter here.

Influenza viruses have continued to steadily circulate within Atlanta and Georgia communities as the state contends with other concerning infectious diseases.

Health care visits for flu-like symptoms and community virus levels detected in wastewater sites remain near their highest marks of the winter, according to data released Friday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Close to 3,000 residents had overnight stays for the flu at metro Atlanta hospitals in January, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

None of these indicators have reached last year’s peak. But Dr. Mark Griffiths, an Emory University pediatric medicine associate professor and director of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s downtown emergency department, said his hospital is experiencing one of the largest flu surges he’s witnessed.

“We’re seeing higher levels of kids testing positive than probably seen the last decade or so,” he said. “And they are coming in of all ages.”

He attributes the spike in flu hospital visits to multiple factors. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, cases of other viruses fell to lower-than-normal rates. But now that some pandemic prevention steps have been relaxed, many airborne diseases have exceeded their baseline numbers.

Urgent CDC data and analyses on influenza and bird flu go missing as outbreaks escalate

Additionally, Griffiths said he’s seen fewer kids vaccinated against the flu compared to previous winters. The CDC estimates that as of early February, between 33% and 56% of children over 6 months old received this year’s shot.

He said the low vaccine uptake is concerning for the health of Georgia kids, as the shots add an extra layer of disease protection.

“Since Covid, we’ve seen the persistence of this vaccine hesitancy,” he said. “Now, we’re seeing it as these really high flu surges.”

Griffiths said it’s not too late for parents to have their children immunized this year, as traditional flu seasons last until March. Additionally, he highlighted new tools, like over-the-counter flu and Covid combination tests, and familiar protections, like wearing a mask when sick, as useful ways for people to prevent respiratory virus spread.

The state is also contending with a variety of other infectious diseases. Over the past few weeks, state and local public health officials have been responding to a small measles outbreak that has infected three members of the same family. None of the family members were vaccinated against measles. No other Georgia residents have tested positive, according to the state DPH.

A study published by the CDC on Thursday also found that public health officials detected a travel-associated Georgia case of Clade I mpox in January, the second case ever detected in the United States. The report says that Clade I cases lead to death more often than Clade II infections, which are still rare but more common domestically.

The Georgia patient’s case was not severe, according to the CDC study. Nancy Nydam, a DPH spokesperson, said the department monitored people who had been in contact with the patient for 21 days — the time in which symptoms usually appear — and none of them contracted the disease.

Allen Siegler is a reporter covering public health in Atlanta for Healthbeat. Contact Allen at asiegler@healthbeat.org.

Healthbeat's New York reporter discusses West Nile virus on WNYC

2024-08-27T19:21:17+00:00

Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free New York City newsletter here.

Healthbeat New York reporter Eliza Fawcett joined “The Brian Lehrer Show” on WNYC on Tuesday to give a public health update on several viral threats.

Fawcett’s recent reporting has focused on cases of West Nile virus in the city and what you need to know about the risk amid peak mosquito season.

“The best way to protect against it is to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes,” Fawcett said.

The city has been spraying neighborhoods with pesticides to mitigate the risk of West Nile virus.

Lehrer and Fawcett also discussed HIV, mpox and Covid in the city.

New Covid vaccines have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and will be available soon. When people should get them depends on their personal risk factors — and whether they were recently infected during this summer’s spike in cases.

Eliza Fawcett is a reporter covering public health in New York City for Healthbeat. Contact Eliza at efawcett@healthbeat.org.

NYC Health Department urges mpox vaccination amid global emergency

2024-08-15T22:17:58+00:00

Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free New York City newsletter here.

On the heels of the World Health Organization’s declaration of a global emergency for mpox, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on Thursday urged anyone at risk to get vaccinated against the virus.

“We have learned many lessons from the 2022 outbreak, and we are prepared,” Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said in a statement. “While the current risk to New Yorkers and Americans is low, we must not only plan ahead but act now.”

Vasan urged anyone at risk for mpox who has not been vaccinated to do so immediately, noting that two doses are needed for maximum protection. New Yorkers can search for a vaccination appointment on the Health Department’s website.

In 2022, New York City was at the epicenter of the country’s outbreak of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, which is a close relative of smallpox. The outbreak peaked that summer with nearly 100 cases of the virus each day.

By early 2023, following the vaccination of more than 100,000 New Yorkers — and with the city touting one of the highest vaccination rates in the country among those at risk for the disease — the Health Department declared the outbreak over.

Still, the virus has continued to circulate in small numbers in New York City. Since Jan. 1, 307 people in the city have tested positive for mpox, with 26 cases from July 7 to Aug. 3, according to the Health Department.

Mpox is spread almost exclusively through oral, anal and vaginal sex and other intimate contact, typically through direct contact with the rash or sores of someone who has the virus, according to the Health Department. Other symptoms can include a sore throat, fever and swollen lymph nodes. Symptoms tend to emerge three to 17 days after exposure and last for two to four weeks.

The Health Department recommends vaccination if you have sex with men and identify as male, transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer or gender-nonconforming, or if you consider yourself to be at risk in the future.

Other prevention measures include not having sex or intimate contact if you or your sexual partners have unexplained rashes or sores, reducing your number of sexual partners, and asking partners if they feel sick, the Health Department advises.

Stephen S. Morse, a professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, said that since mpox generally spreads through direct contact, it is far less transmissible than a virus like Covid-19. Even so, a few travel-related cases can launch a broader outbreak.

“The concern is that it’s still moving,” he said. “It needs to be controlled.”

The mpox virus has two types, Clade 1 and Clade 2. Clade 1 is dominant in current mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have spread to a dozen other African countries. Clade 2 drove the global mpox outbreak in 2022, including New York City’s crisis.

Clade 1 tends to cause a higher number of severe infections and have a higher mortality rate than Clade 2, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. There are currently no known cases of Clade 1 mpox in the United States.

“For New York City, we’ve been there before, and hopefully we can get it right this time,” Morse said.

Eliza Fawcett is a reporter covering public health in New York City for Healthbeat. Contact Eliza at efawcett@healthbeat.org.