PUBLISHED DECISION GUIDE
What is mpox? Should you be worried?
Official Shanghai government guidance on mpox, its transmission, symptoms, and risk factors.
The World Health Organization has declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) for the second time in two years. Here's what Shanghai residents should know.
Independently written English guidance based on cited public sources. Every public guide is human reviewed; it is not an official translation of the source publisher.
Global Alert
The World Health Organization declared monkeypox — which it now refers to as mpox — a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on Aug 14, activating its highest level of global alert for the virus for the second time in two years.
According to the WHO, mpox has been endemic in West and Central Africa for decades, but the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the epicenter of a dangerous new strain that emerged last year.
As of Aug 9, Africa has reported 17,431 mpox cases and over 500 deaths across 13 states — with over 95 percent of cases concentrated in the DR Congo — already exceeding last year's total cases, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The WHO has declared a PHEIC seven times since the mechanism's inception in 2007: H1N1 in 2009, poliovirus in 2014, Ebola virus in 2014 and 2019, Zika virus in 2016, COVID-19 in 2020, and mpox in 2022.
Transmission and Symptoms
Mpox usually passes to humans from rodents and primates, through bites, aerosol transmission, or contact with infected fluids. Person-to-person transmission usually occurs through contact with respiratory secretions, infected skin lesions, or recently contaminated objects.
Infection is usually mild, but the mpox illness can last from two to four weeks and prove fatal if left untreated.
For some people, the first symptom of mpox is a rash. The rash begins as a flat sore which develops into a blister filled with liquid and may be itchy or painful. As the rash heals, the lesions dry up, crust over and fall off.
People infected with mpox can pass the disease onto others until all sores have healed and a new layer of skin has formed.
Children, pregnant women, and people with weak immune systems are at higher risk.
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