The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a health update today to notify clinicians about the occurrence, geographic spread, and sexually associated human-to-human transmission of Clade I Monkeypox virus (MPXV) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with spread to neighboring countries. MPXV has two distinct genetic clades, and no cases of clade I mpox have been reported outside central and eastern Africa at this time (a clade is a broad grouping of viruses that has evolved over decades and is a genetic and clinically distinct group). The CDC asks clinicians to be aware of the possibility of Clade I MPXV in travelers who have been in DRC and its neighboring countries (Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Zambia, Angola, Tanzania, and South Sudan) in the past 21 days.
