Earlier this week, the World Health Organization declared mpox a global public-health emergency.
Arizona is seeing an uptick in mpox cases, with 43 reported this year. But state health officials say the cases are unrelated to the new outbreak identified by WHO.
Dr. Joel Terriquez with the state Department of Health Services says that's because there are two different types of mpox.
He says this new outbreak declaration refers to type one, which is mostly isolated to Democratic Republic of the Congo. One case is in Sweden.
There are forms of treatment and prevention, including a vaccine.
“They will work in suppressing both types of infection, type one and type two. There might be some newer literature that could question this but as of today we are utilizing this medication and the vaccine with success,” Terriquez said.
The 2022 global outbreak spread type two. Since then, Arizona has documented 644 cases of mpox, with the majority in that first year.
Terriquez says the people most at risk have multiple sexual partners or men-who-have-sex-with-men.
