Mpox Disease Presents Hard-to-weigh Risks

A port health officer screens travellers at a border crossing point between Kenya and Uganda (Credit: AFP)

As fears mount globally about mpox, apparently simple questions such as the danger it poses and differences between variants do not have clear and simple answers.

The World Health Organization in July declared an international health emergency over the spread of mpox, which first appeared in humans around 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).