A virulent strain of the monkeypox virus has gained the ability to spread through sexual contact, new data suggest. This has alarmed researchers, who fear a reprise of the worldwide mpox outbreak in 2022. Evidence from past outbreaks indicates that this strain, called clade I, is more lethal than the one that sparked the 2022 global outbreak. Clade I has for decades caused small outbreaks, often limited to a few households or communities, in Central Africa. Sexually-acquired clade I infections had not been reported before 2023. But since then, a clade I strain with an apparent capacity for sexual transmission has caused a cluster of infections in a conflict-ridden region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in Central Africa. A preprint1 posted on 15 April reports that 241 suspected and 108 confirmed infections are connected to this outbreak ' and these numbers are probably a vast undercount because of limited testing capacity. Almost 30% of the confirmed infections were...
learn more
