Taiwan Reports First Imported Case of Variant Mpox; CDC Urges At-Risk Individuals to Get Fully Vaccinated

The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) today announced two new Mpox cases, both in unvaccinated individuals. One of them, an imported case from Thailand, was confirmed through genetic sequencing to be infected with the clade I Ib substrain. This marks the first detection of this new "variant Mpox" in Taiwan. The CDC urges those eligible for the publicly-funded vaccine to get fully inoculated. Since Mpox became a notifiable disease in 2022, all other cases in Taiwan have been the clade II strain. The CDC reminds the public that completing the two-dose vaccine series provides about 90% protection against the virus.