How contagious is mpox? Why scientists say this strain is ‘worrisome’

Mpox has been declared a global public health emergency and while immunologists say more research is needed to determine how contagious it is, cases are being reported across communities and the virus is impacting not only adults but children as well.

Known as clade 1b mpox, the strain has been spreading across much of Africa since being first detected in the Kamituga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Last week, a case was reported in Sweden in someone who had travelled to an affected African country, the first diagnosed outside of the continent.

David Kelvin, a professor in Dalhousie University’s department of microbiology and immunology and one of the lead researchers studying the Kamituga mpox strain, told Global News that what is “worrisome” is who it has impacted compared to 2022.

“Clade 2b started in a very defined social group and it moved through that social group,” he said. “Whereas this clade 1 is not defined to a single social group, it’s throughout the entire community.”

Clade 2b was the strain that caused a public health emergency in 2022, with concerns emerging at the time that it could stigmatize the LGBTQ2 community, as gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM) between the ages of 18 and 49 were disproportionately affected.

Kelvin said the initial study showed some of the first cases being from heterosexual contact, however since discovery last year, he said a number of cases have been found in children as well.

Dr. Don Vinh, an infectious diseases specialist at McGill University Health Centre, told Global News that much like in 2022, caution should be taken on categorizing this latest form of mpox.

“As wrong as it is to say that the 2022 outbreak was a gay disease, which was