How the Mpox Response Has Learned from History

Scientific American The abandoned buildings behind the New Somerset hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, are prime real estate along the waterfront, so guards patrol the area day and night to protect against squatters. But squatters aren’t the only visitors. Tucked in among the empty facades is the Ivan Toms Center for Health, one of the first clinics in South Africa for men who have sex with men. It was launched in 2009 to provide comprehensive, free and sensitive health care. These days a new concern is on the minds of its visitors: mpox. The first human case of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, was described in the 1970s. The disease is thought to be caused by a virus that jumped from animals to humans and causes symptoms similar to smallpox. This past August the World Health Organization designated mpox a public health emergency of international concern for the second time in two years. Although the risk of mpox is not limited to men who have sex with men, the transmission dynamics of the 2022 outbreak led researchers and public health officials to identify them as a high-risk group. During 2022 more than 90 percent of known cases were among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. As the outbreak builds, Ivan Toms and similar clinics have seen an increase in patients wanting information.

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