Monkeypox has been spreading in many countries. Many media and public health agencies have consistently emphasized that monkeypox mainly spreads through contact via the skin in their public statements, educational flyers, and media articles in the last few months. However, more research found that monkeypox mainly spread through sexual contact. New England Journal of Medicine…

LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed Sept. 12 the first death due to monkeypox in a county resident. The person “was severely immunocompromised and had been hospitalized,” the health department said in a statement Monday. “To protect confidentiality and privacy, additional…

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced on Sept. 9 the finding, from joint research by the HKUST and the University of Melbourne, Australia, that the immune response induced by vaccinia virus-based smallpox vaccines is cross-reactive with the monkeypox virus in humans. The findings were published in the international scientific journal Viruses….

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles County health officials will continue their investigation Sept. 9 into the death of a person who was infected with monkeypox—to determine if the ailment was a contributing factor in the fatality. The case is only the second in the United States being investigated as a possible monkeypox death. Texas previously reported a…

Authorities in Texas on Tuesday confirmed the first death of a person who contracted monkeypox in the United States, coming after more than 18,000 people have contracted the virus in recent months. The individual who died was “severely immunocompromised,” said the Texas Department of State Health Services in a statement. It’s not clear if the person died…

The Biden administration announced on Monday it will provide about $11 million to support the production of the Jynneos smallpox vaccine that is being used against monkeypox in the ongoing outbreak. The funds will support the manufacturing of the vaccines at Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing (GRAM) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the U.S. Department of Health and Human…

GENEVA—The number of monkeypox cases reported globally dropped 21 percent in the last week, reversing a month-long trend of rising infections and signaling that Europe’s outbreak may be starting to decline, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday. The U.N. health agency reported 5,907 new weekly cases and said two countries, Iran and Indonesia, reported…

MEXICO CITY—Mexico and Cuba have reported the deaths of two people who had tested positive for monkeypox, although neither country attributed the fatalities to the viral disease. The reports follow monkeypox-related deaths reported in Brazil and Ecuador in the past month, but fatalities remain rare in the current outbreak. The Pan-American Health Organization has reported…

The New Zealand government has announced it has secured a supply of tecovirimat, the medicine used to treat monkeypox, but was still working to secure a supply of the monkeypox vaccine, known as Jynneos or Imvanex. Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall said that 504 courses of tecovirimat are expected to be available in the…

SANTA ANA, Calif.—Orange County health officials Aug. 24 confirmed the county’s first case of monkeypox in a person under age 18. No details about the case or the patient were released. Health officials said only that they are working to identify close contacts of the patient and offer vaccines to those who may have been…