With mpox infections on the rise globally, frantic social media posts have been stirring up fear. Should college students worry about returning to school?
An illness called mpox has been all over the news since mid-August, right on the verge of a new school year.
Many students still shudder at the memory of the online classes and social distancing that defined the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fearful videos about the current mpox outbreak have already cropped up.
News stories, photos, and symptom descriptions have also portrayed mpox as something you definitely do not want to contract.
College life typically involves crowded dormitories, shared bathrooms, and other shared spaces — perfect environments for illnesses to spread. Does mpox pose a significant risk to students?
Before we get there, what exactly is this disease?
What is mpox?
Mpox is a contagious viral infection. The illness is related to smallpox, and symptoms usually include bumpy, sore-like dots on the skin. It can be a painful and itchy experience.
People infected with mpox may also show flu-like symptoms, such as a fever, headaches, or muscle aches.
The illness mainly spreads from person to person through close contact, according to the World Health Organization. Close contact includes touching, kissing, or having sex — although mpox is not categorized as a sexually transmitted infection.
Mpox can also be transmitted from infected animals to people, and from contaminated surfaces to people.
A brief history of mpox
The disease’s former name was monkeypox. It was discovered in 1958 when there was an outbreak among imported monkeys that were used for research in Denmark. Where the virus originated is still unknown.
The first recorded human case was in 1970 in the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then, mpox has been endemic, or regularly occurring, in parts of Africa.
2003 saw the first known human mpox case in a different continent: North America. Infections outside Africa remained rare.
It took a multi-country outbreak in 2022 for the non-African world to start worrying about mpox. More than 95,000 cases appeared in 115 countries where the disease was not usually present.
After the 2022 outbreak subsided, global infections became less frequent. But recently, the situation took an unexpected turn.
2024 outbreak: What’s different?
Mpox infections recently increased in Africa, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On August 14, the WHO declared the recent mpox upsurge a “public health emergency of international concern.” That is the same label the organization gave to the 2022 outbreak.
The reason for concern this year is different than it was two years ago.
Mpox has two clades, clade I and clade II, which are related versions of the virus with different characteristics.
The 2022 outbreak involved clade II, the less severe version of mpox that has an estimated 99.9% survival rate among those who are infected.
But the 2024 outbreak centers around a deadlier subtype of clade I that was discovered last year: clade Ib. Past outbreaks of clade I mpox have had survival rates as low as 90%.
The clade Ib subtype is also behaving in unusual ways: It is evolving, mutating, and spreading quickly.
Clade Ib has mostly impacted Africa, but two cases were reported outside the continent: one in Sweden and one in Thailand.
Social media mayhem
Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, any inkling of an internationally-spreading disease can cause anxiety. The internet is often the first to overreact.
Paranoia spread online during the 2022 mpox outbreak. The World Health Organization decided to change the disease’s name from monkeypox to mpox because of racist and homophobic commentary.
But the next year, the World Health Organization declared the 2022 public health emergency over. Previously-panicked social media users calmed down, even as mpox continued to spread in Africa.
The internet’s reaction to the 2024 mpox outbreak closely resembled the online hysteria of two years ago.
“Not only is there a new strain of monkeypox that is spreading fast,” one TikToker said in a video full of misleading claims, “But how this new strain gets inside of you is insane.”
The transmission of mpox is not too unusual, unless you think close contact is insane.
The creator, Piff Peterson, went on to say that mpox “now” exists in the United States.
But mpox in the United States is nothing new. It was there in 2003, and again in 2022.
Peterson’s video, among others, border on misinformation: They suggest that the current outbreak (consisting of clade Ib mpox) has reached the United States.
Only clade II mpox, the less deadly version that spread during the 2022 outbreak, was ever confirmed to exist in the United States.
So far, there were only two cases of clade Ib outside of Africa. Both were travel-related and in separate parts of the world.
Still, it can be easy to lose track of facts amid the fearmongering on social media.
Some mpox-related content already has commenters calling for school shutdowns and quarantines, throwing around conspiracy theories, and likening the mpox outbreak to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jagdish Khubchandani, professor of public health at New Mexico State University, said all the misinformation is a tragedy.
“I don’t think we can control the social media narratives, and people will say all kinds of things,” Khubchandani said. “That’s just a warning…that you cannot depend for health info on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.”
When looking for mpox information on social media, Khubchandani said, people should only trust content from established medical organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Posts from reputable medical professionals may be reliable too, but even social media doctors should be viewed with skepticism.
Online content from non-experts, no matter how many followers they have, may be misinformed, misleading, or just plain wrong.
“People’s desire to just post something is hurting the whole purpose of social media and technology,” Khubchandani said — the purpose being to spread accurate information.
Not another COVID
While colleges tend to be havens for contagious illnesses, the outbreak of clade Ib mpox is not widespread enough to disrupt students’ daily lives in the way that COVID-19 did.
Khubchandani said mpox is a serious disease, but it does not spread as quickly or efficiently as COVID-19.
“With mpox, the transmission thankfully does not happen like COVID-19,” Khubchandani said. “You have to come into really, really close contact with the [infected] person…or use items that were used by another person that had mpox.”
Although the virus does not currently pose a pandemic-level threat, it is important to stay vigilant and be aware of updates to the global mpox situation, Khubchandani said.
At the moment, global efforts should focus on responding to the ongoing harm mpox is causing in Africa — an undertaking in which vaccines should play a key role.
But, as the New York Times reported, the World Health Organization’s regulations have prevented the distribution of mpox vaccines in Africa. The Democratic Republic of Congo, where mpox is at its worst, had zero access to the vaccines as of August 23.
Stay alert, but don’t panic
As with any disease, mpox is unpredictable. The future impacts of the virus remain unknown.
Khubchandani said that in the United States, mpox “is not a huge risk for college students, but things can change over time.”
Still, Khubchandani suggested that college students who study or live in countries with confirmed clade Ib cases should be careful, and other students should avoid traveling to or studying abroad in those places for now.
If mpox were to spread among college students, Khubchandani said, the main route of transmission would likely be sexual.
Khubchandani said college students should “practice safe sex, maintain good hygiene, avoid multiple partners, [and] be aware of who [they] are engaged with.”
It is also important to keep in mind the ways mpox can spread other than through sexual contact.
If you notice mpox symptoms in someone you live with, you should ask them to seek medical care, Khubchandani said.
If you are showing signs of the virus, see a doctor as soon as possible, take care of yourself, and take precautions to protect the people around you.
As with any infectious disease, you can never be too careful.
