While the World Health Organization declares mpox a global emergency based on rapid spread in African countries, the infectious disease formerly known as monkeypox has been considered an epidemic in the U.S. since 2022.
Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus, chief of UConn Health's Division of Infectious Diseases, has been keeping an eye on it, both here and overseas. "At this point there is no cause for great alarm," Dieckhaus says.
"Our local epidemic is not from the strain that led to the WHO declaration of a public health emergency of international concern. At this time, the concern in Africa is due to increased reported cases of a more infectious strain, Clade 1 virus, which to date has been primarily seen in Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of the Congo." Dieckhaus, who monitors potential global health risks as a physician in UConn Health's International Traveler's Medical Service, says other countries in Africa also have seen cases, and a suspected case of transmission was reported in Sweden in mid-August.
Noting the Clade 1 strain has not reached the U.S., Dieckhaus says known mpox cases in Connecticut tallied 11 through the first half of 2024.
It went from 145 in 2022 to four last year, after an mpox vaccine was introduced. "Many, but not all, cases in the United States are associated with close physical contact including sexual contact , although cases can be seen in those with any type of close physical contact or environmental proxim.