A viral vector that could have been arrested even before last year, is now likely going to be a constant companion, in some circles — even in the United States, from here onward.

This is a story of US public policy / health care outreach… failure. This is what happens, when we stop helping with world-wide preventative health initiatives. Here’s the latest, from CIDRAP, at the U. of Minn. — while I was mostly off-grid, in the mountains last week:

…Although mpox cases related to the 2022 global outbreak were diagnosed in people who had traveled aboard, the virus now is spreading continuously in the United States.

Persistent, low levels of mpox “suggest a likely transition toward endemic circulation,” according to a report in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) flagship publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The paper also quantifies the risk of hospitalization in unvaccinated mpox patients.

Mpox spreads through close contact, such as cuddling, kissing, or sex. Mpox can spread among household contacts, either from skin-to-skin contact or by sharing towels or bedding. In the current outbreak in Guinea-Bissau, half of cases are in children.

In the United States, mpox is most common among men who have sex with men. The CDC recommends that people at risk for mpox, including those traveling to countries with outbreaks of the virus, receive two doses of the Jynneos vaccine….

The global outbreak of clade 2b mpox that began in 2022 has infected 100,000 people in 122 total countries, including 115 countries in which mpox was not previously reported….

Truly, this is tragic.

Even so, here, elementary public schoolkids go back tomorrow now — how summers fly, nowadays! Smile… and, we travel onward, resolutely — as ever.

नमस्ते