The abandoned buildings behind the New Somerset hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, are prime real estate along the waterfront, so guards patrol the area day and night to protect against squatters.

In August 2024, the news came in quick succession. On Tuesday — Aug. 13, 2024 — Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared mpox a public health emergency of continental concern. The ...

Hyacinth Empinado was the special projects editor for STAT’s multimedia team. Helen Branswell covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and ...

The rapid spread of a new virulent strain of the mpox virus across Africa triggered WHO to declare it a "public health emergency of international concern." The World Health Organization (WHO) on ...

The epidemic in Africa continues to grow, prompting fears of another outbreak in the U.S. But the vaccine is no longer free, and vulnerable people are going without. The epidemic in Africa continues ...

The U.S. saw more than 20,000 mpox cases and nearly six dozen deaths during the 2022 global mpox outbreak. San Francisco was hard hit. Today, mpox remains an ongoing public health emergency, according ...

A virus originally found in animals, mpox -- which causes the disease of the same name -- is now circulating in humans. Since 2022, it has been the cause of major epidemics spreading outside endemic ...

Mpox can spread through close contact with an infected person such as skin-to-skin touching or cuts, sexual activity, mouth-to-mouth contact, or breathing in infectious respiratory particles. This ...

Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has been detected in North Carolina wastewater, prompting health officials to urge vigilance. While no clade I mpox cases have been reported in N.C., its presence in ...