Science The decision by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to declare back-to-back public health emergencies over the spread of mpox last week have rekindled global interest in the disease.
But the facts have been confusing. Is the mpox virus spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring countries—which triggered the alarms—more deadly than the variant that exploded across the globe 2 years ago, as has been widely reported? Is it more transmissible? How to square reports that the virus is now transmitting sexually in the DRC with the fact that the majority of cases there have been in children?
The situation is unusually complex because it essentially involves three epidemics happening at the same time, each with a different virus variant, in different locations and populations, and with different modes of spread. ScienceInsider talked to mpox researchers to help bring some clarity.