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What’s Going On With Mpox?

Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH

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Transcript:

I’m so glad someone asked me this question. I’ve been wanting to talk about this.

Last summer, we saw mpox jump really high. Lots of cases. Up to over 400 cases on average per day at one point. And then we saw a really rapid decline in mpox. Three reasons for that.

One, people acted and listened. So, people changed their behavior and that resulted in mpox starting to decrease.

People who were exposed to mpox and got the infection, they also have resistance to the infection for some amount of time.

And then, lastly, vaccine, which is really the best way to be immune to mpox. Vaccination and access to vaccination was really important in reducing mpox.

But, we’re not out of the woods. And that means there’s an opportunity for mpox to come back. If we get on top of it, and we get more people vaccinated, we are going to not only protect our health, we’re also gonna protect our summer fun.