Good news on the public health front seems to spread slowly and inefficiently.
Take the mpox emergency declaration, which ended at the end of January 2023. That step was anticipated in a December 2022 Statement From HHS Secretary Becerra on mpox. The emergency was first issued August 2022.
Slightly over 30,000 cases have been reported in the U.S., but cases have declined dramatically, to two a day--a 97% drop compared to the initial outbreak. Due to the steep drop in cases, CDC case counts have shifted from weekly to biweekly.
The outbreak was quickly stemmed as over one million people in the U.S. got an mpox vaccine and risk reduction measures were widely adopted.
Keep the Focus on mpox and HIV
A high proportion of mpox cases were among people also infected with HIV. For a summary of the totality of actions taken that brought the emergency to a rapid end, and how a continued focus on mpox matters in HIV work, watch the above minute-plus video and read HIV.gov's Mpox Message for 2023: Integrating Mpox Messaging Into Our HIV Response.
See also HRSA's Mpox Information.