At the end of 2023, I reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that a more infectious mpox strain (i.e., the rebranded monkeypox) had been found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This strain spread and had a higher infection fatality rate than previous strains involved in 2022’s “Monkeypox Emergency. “

In addition to Central Africa, the new strain—Clade 1B, which is more easily transmissible by skin contact and causes more severe infections—has been reported in Sweden, Thailand, Germany, and California.  As a reminder, Clade1B is much more transmissible through household-level interactions than other strains, which are passed through sexual contact.

Travel-related cases have also been reported in Belgium, Canada, India, Oman, Pakistan, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.

Chinese public health officials have now detected the new mutated strain of the mpox virus for the first time, as the pathogen continues to spread globally following the World Health Organization’s declaration of a global health emergency in Africa last year.