<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>329875</docID> <postdate>2024-09-27 13:00:02</postdate> <headline>Local mpox cases surge after global emergency declared</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-329876" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240919196409308377-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="601" /></p> <caption>Mpox vaccination is recommended for men who have sex with men, sex workers and healthcare staff. (AP PHOTO)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Jack Gramenz</strong> in Sydney</span></p> <p><strong>Mpox cases have surged across Australia, swelling from a handful to hundreds in the space of a few months.</strong></p> <p>More than 600 cases have been notified to federal authorities in the current reporting quarter, as of Friday, amid an explosion in the virus worldwide.</p> <p>The tally is up from only six confirmed cases in the first three months of 2024.</p> <p>More than half of the 737 diagnoses throughout the year have been in NSW, while there have been another 254 cases in Victoria.</p> <p>The vast majority of cases are among men, although two women have also been diagnosed.</p> <p>Mpox is caused by the monkeypox virus, which is from the same family as the one responsible for smallpox.</p> <p>Vaccinations against that disease have also been used to suppress mpox.</p> <p>The virus is transmitted chiefly through prolonged physical or intimate contact with an infected person.</p> <p>A painful rash, lesions or sores, fever, chills, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes and sore throat are among the common symptoms.</p> <p>Most patients fully recover, but some can become seriously ill.</p> <p>Mpox was first diagnosed in Australia in 2022 amid a global outbreak, with 144 cases confirmed across the nation that year.</p> <p>Cases were more suppressed in 2023, with 26 reported.</p> <p>But researchers from UNSW's Kirby Institute warned of the disease's re-emergence in June after case numbers began rising in 2024, surpassing the previous year's total in the first six months of the year.</p> <p>Some 275 cases had been recorded nationwide in September as of Friday, a new monthly peak.</p> <p>Leaders of the Quad nations – Australia, United States, India and Japan – discussed combating the disease at a summit earlier in the month.</p> <p>"We plan to co-ordinate our efforts to promote equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured mpox vaccines, including where appropriate expanding vaccine manufacturing in low and middle-income countries," a joint statement said.</p> <p>Vaccination is recommended for men who have sex with men, sex workers, healthcare and laboratory staff at risk of exposure.</p> <p>Mpox was declared a global health emergency in August as a new strain began spreading from the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries.</p> <p>The strain is considered more deadly and more transmissible but is not believed to have hit Australia.</p> <p>More than $800 million has been pledged to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention for its response to the virus.</p> </body>