Why the mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is worrying disease docs

The palms of a patient with mpox during an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997. The country is now seeing a dramatic spike in mpox — with a strain that is deadlier than the one that sparked the global outbreak in 2022. (CDC/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

"It's just a matter of time, if nothing is done, that the transmission crosses the border in the African region and, again, globally," says Dr. Jean Nachega, an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh.

Nachega is one of a number of public health experts expressing alarm over a major outbreak of mpox – formerly called monkeypox – in the Democratic Republic of Congo.