CDC Issues Health Alert on Mpox Vaccine Recommendations

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health advisory on Tuesday recommending that travelers to countries where a certain type of mpox is spreading should be fully vaccinated beforehand.
The clade I strain of mpox, also known as monkeypox, has led to outbreaks across eastern and central Africa in recent months, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the virus a public health emergency of international concern this summer.
“Early data indicate that a large proportion of clade Ib mpox cases among adults has been associated with sexual contact, including via ongoing transmission believed to be occurring in some countries where the virus is not normally found,” the agency said.
No cases of the clade I mpox strain have been found in the United States, the CDC said in the update. The United States is still, however, impacted by the ongoing outbreak of clade II mpox that started two years ago, it said.
Clade I has been associated with more severe infections, compared to clade II infections, according to the CDC. But the agency said that data suggest that estimates about clade I’s severity “may have been too high,” citing a study carried out in the DR Congo.
The CDC’s latest guidance advised that travelers to the region speak to health care providers about vaccines if they are going to a country with an ongoing clade I mpox outbreak.
Health care providers should now “advise travelers that mpox exposure risk is associated with sexual contact,” the agency also warned. They should also “remind patients that mpox is not spread through casual contact, such as one might have in public spaces like markets, offices, or classrooms,” it added.
And in Congo, scientists have identified a new strain of mpox that may spread more easily. It has reached areas where conflict and the displacement of a large number of people have already put health services under pressure. Overall, Congo has more than 21,000 of the 25,093 confirmed and suspected mpox cases in Africa this year, according to WHO’s most recent count.
Mpox, once known as monkeypox, comes from the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes milder symptoms such as fever. People with more serious cases can develop skin lesions. More than 720 people in Africa have died in the latest outbreaks, mostly in Congo.
Mpox is a zoonotic disease, meaning it can spread to humans from infected animals. In the global mpox outbreak of 2022, the virus spread between people primarily through sex and close physical contact.