This virus seems like it's no longer a problem. It's still a threat

This virus seems like it's no longer a problem. It's still a threat

A year ago, on Aug. 14, 2024, the World Health Organization declared mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Why are health experts so frustrated by the world's response?

This virus seems like it’s no longer a problem. It’s still a threat

(NPR) – Mpox made for scary headlines in 2022 and 2023: tens of thousands of cases worldwide, with 30,000 in the U.S. in just one year. There were reports of painful lesions and mammoth efforts to mobilize vaccines. In 2025, it seems like just a memory. Only it’s not. “You see the agony the patient goes through. It’s on another level,” says Caroline Mugun, a nurse at an mpox isolation ward in Mombasa, Kenya. Over the past year, the virus has spr…