Amid the global outbreak of monkeypox, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that unlike COVID-19, the monkeypox virus (formerly known as monkeypox), does not spread easily through the air.

Monkeypox, which is caused by the monkeypox virus (a zoonotic virus belonging to the Orthopoxvirus genus), can be spread from person to person primarily through close skin-to-skin contact.

This includes touching or sex and mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-skin contact (such as kissing), and may also include being face-to-face with someone who has ampox (such as talking or breathing close to each other, which may produce infectious respiratory particles).

The CDC’s ‘Morbidity and Mortality’ weekly report included a study of 113 people with ampox who traveled on 221 flights during 2021-22.

The results showed that none of the 1,046 passengers were infected.

The findings suggest that “traveling by air with a person infected with amprox does not pose a risk of infection, or require routine contact tracing activities.”

Although the World Health Organisation has revealed that face-to-face contact with someone infected with ampox can spread the disease, this is unlikely.

During the 2022 ampox outbreak, the virus was primarily spread through sexual contact.

However, World Health Organization researchers say more research is needed into how ampox spreads during outbreaks under different circumstances.

The main symptom of ampox is skin rashes that turn into pus-filled sores, which can last for two to four weeks.

Other symptoms include fever, headache, body aches, sore throat and cough, and lymphadenopathy (swollen lymph nodes).

People with ampox are considered contagious until all of their lesions have crusted over, the scabs have fallen off and a new layer of skin has formed underneath, and all lesions on the eyes and body (mouth, throat, eyes, vagina, and anus) have healed.

Skin rashes may vary depending on the type of ampox: clade Ib and clade II.

Clade Ib, the new strain that has led the World Health Organisation to declare it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), is more severe and dangerous than Clade II.

Clade II can also cause a rash, although it is less severe than clade Ib.

Pregnant women with ampox can pass the virus to a fetus during pregnancy or to a newborn baby during or after birth.

Some people can spread ampox to others 1 to 4 days before symptoms appear.

The ampox virus can also spread to another person through contact with objects, clothing and surfaces that have not been disinfected after use by a person with ampox.

This includes items such as clothing, bedding, towels, sexual accessories or sex toys.