Mpox

Three people have died and 40 others have been hospitalized across 13 states due to a Listeria outbreak related to sliced deli meats, according to the CDC.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, said Wednesday that he will convene an emergency committee to determine if the increasing spread of mpox in Africa represents a public health emergency of international concern.

The CDC advised clinicians for a second time to be on alert for possible mpox cases in travelers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who may be infected with a deadlier strain of the virus than the one that caused an outbreak in 2022.

An investigation of mpox cases during a 2023 outbreak revealed that cases were likely due to frequent behaviors associated with mpox transmission despite most patients being vaccinated with a relatively highly effective vaccine.

The FDA has granted emergency use authorization for Labcorp’s Mpox PCR Test Home Collection Kit, the company announced in a press release.

An mpox vaccine is now commercially available in the United States, expanding the locations where patients can access the shot to include pharmacies, physician offices and other facilities that normally vaccinate.

Paxlovid, an oral antiviral approved by the FDA in May 2023, did not reduce the risk for long COVID among vaccinated, nonhospitalized patients who received it within a month of their first SARS-CoV-2 infection, a study showed.

Wastewater surveillance can detect a single mpox case in large samples representing thousands to millions of people, and its effectiveness increases as the number of cases grows, according to a study.

During a 2022 mpox outbreak in a Nigerian tertiary care facility, several confirmed cases presented atypically, according to a recent assessment of cases.

The CDC has issued a health advisory to physicians in the United States about clade I mpox virus, which is more transmissible than the clade IIb mpox virus behind last year’s global outbreak.