New Delhi: Amid the global mpox outbreak, a recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that the monkeypox virus (MPXV) does not spread easily through the air, unlike Covid-19. The report, part of the CDC’s weekly Morbidity and Mortality study, examined 113 mpox-infected individuals who traveled on 221 flights in 2021-22. None of the 1,046 passengers in close contact with these individuals contracted the virus.
The findings suggest that air travel with an infected person does not pose significant risk, nor does it require routine contact tracing. However, the CDC advises people with mpox to isolate and avoid travel until they are no longer infectious.
The report also clarified that mpox primarily spreads through close physical contact, and rarely through respiratory secretions. The ongoing outbreak, driven by clade 1b, has raised concerns due to its higher transmissibility and has resulted in a global health emergency, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
