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Wayne County Public Health confirmed a case of mpox, the county's first since the global outbreak in 2022. Officials say the risk to the public remains low and urge anyone who is at risk to get vaccinated. This is the 19th case reported in Michigan. "Though we are awaiting the specific virus type, there have been no U.S. cases of the new strain of mpox (Clade 1 type) connected to the current outbreak in sub-Saharan Africa," the county said in a statement. (Booth-Singleton, 8/21)

Mpox reached the U.S. as part of a global outbreak in 2022, resulting in 32,000 known infections and 58 deaths domestically. All those cases have been linked to the less virulent and contagious clade II type. The CDC says no clade I infections have been found in the U.S., and that the U.S. is at low risk of this strain arriving. The CDC says mpox infections usually last two and four weeks, and most cases resolve themselves without treatment. There’s no specific medication for mpox, but the CDC says symptoms can be managed with over-the-counter medicines and prescription mouthwashes. The agency strongly advises patients not to touch or scratch the rash. (Ortiz, 8/21)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) yesterday announced an additional $35 million in emergency health assistance for the clade 1 mpox outbreak in Central and East Africa. In a statement, USAID said the announcement brings the total help for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other affected countries to $55 million and that the new funding is pending congressional notification. (Schnirring, 8/21)

As disease detectives rush to central Africa to quell a mushrooming mpox contagion, they’re finding a complex mosaic of infection patterns involving different viral strains and vastly different routes of infection. In the Democratic Republic of Congo’s gold-rich eastern region, a newly mutated virus is spreading mostly among adults through sexual contact. In other areas of the country, an older strain is spilling from infected wildlife to humans who hunt and handle the animals, leading to a deadly explosion of cases among children. (Gale and Kew, 8/22)

Health officials in Argentina said on Wednesday that a test to determine if a crew member on a quarantined grains cargo ship was infected with the mpox virus had come back negative, according to a statement from the health ministry. In its statement, the health ministry said the individual tested negative for mpox, but positive for chicken pox. (8/21)

Merck’s Ebola vaccine offered substantial protection to people vaccinated during the 2018-2020 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with an effectiveness of 84% in those who had been vaccinated at least 10 days before being exposed to the virus, a new study reports. An earlier study had shown that people who were vaccinated but went on to develop the disease were more likely to survive the infection. (Branswell, 8/21)