Queensland Health has issued an urgent alert after a man arrived in Australia from Africa carrying a new strain of monkeypox, with 59 people exposed so far.
The man was diagnosed with rare Clade 1 monkeypox at Logan Hospital, becoming the second person in Australia diagnosed with the new strain, which causes more severe illness and has higher mortality rates. The first was detected in NSW in May.
Health Minister Tim Nicholls, using the politically correct term “mpox”, said the man was infected in central Africa but was not contagious with the disease, which mainly affects homosexual men, on his return journey.
Authorities believe 19 community contacts, including the man’s family members, and 40 hospital staff have been exposed to the man. The family members include children at childcare centres, primary schools and high schools.
“Those close contacts that he has been in contact, including at the emergency ward and in other locations, are being contact traced right now and identified at this stage,” Mr Nicholls said on Sunday.
“At the moment his family are asymptomatic, that is, they’re not showing any signs of the Clade 1 mpox, but they are isolating.”
“Vaccination is available for post-exposure prophylaxis as well as primary preventive vaccination. High risk groups, including all sexually active gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men and their partners, are eligible for free vaccines through sexual health clinics and general practitioners.”
There have been 150 cases of monkeypox diagnosed in Australia so far this year, all but three in men. In 2024 there were 1,409 cases, all but 12 in men, including one in a male child aged between 5 and 9.
Common monkeypox symptoms include rashes, lesions or sores, fever, chills, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, and sore throat.
The disease is mostly spread from person-to-person through prolonged physical or intimate contact.
The term “mpox” was introduced by the World Health Organisation in November 2022 to be used simultaneously with “monkeypox” for one year while the original name for the disease, in use since the 1970s, was phased out.
The WHO cited “racist and stigmatising language” for the move.
Header image credit: Center for Disease Control.
