Mpox back in Michigan, though numbers are lower than 2022 outbreak

• Mpox surged throughout the nation in 2022, but cases quickly fell after awareness of risks grew and vaccines were made available. 
• Just four cases were reported in Michigan last year.
• In an alert to clinicians Friday, Michigan health officials said 16 cases have been reported since February.

Michigan is reporting an uptick in mpox, including 16 probable or confirmed cases since February. Of those most recent cases, three men were hospitalized.

Those cases of the infection formerly known as monkeypox were reported in Genesee, Kent, Oakland, Ottawa, and Macomb counties and in Detroit, according to an update Friday from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Cases remain “significantly lower” than they were during the peak of the outbreak in 2022. That year, the state reported 394 cases, primarily in the summer and fall, after the first case was detected in Oakland County in July, according to state health department data.

Related:

• Three months into monkeypox, a pleasant surprise in Michigan
• As monkeypox cases spread among gay men in Michigan, messaging becomes tricky
• Man v. Microbe: Drug-resistant superbugs gain a toehold in Michigan

More than 30,000 people in the country were infected, and public health officials said data showed that gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men were particularly at risk. 

In Michigan, clinicians and advocates launched awareness campaigns and distributed vaccines, quickly tamping down the cases that tapered through the end of the year. Last year,  just four cases were detected in Michigan.

Health officials now worry about the potential for a resurgence of the infection, which causes a painful, scabby rash on hands, feet, chest, face, or mouth or near the genitals and anus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other symptoms include fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion, muscle aches and backache, headache and respiratory problems such as a sore throat, nasal congestion, or cough.

The virus can be spread through sex and through direct contact with rashes, scabs or body fluids of a person with mpox.

Symptoms may not develop for up to 17 days after exposure.

Among recent cases, nine of the 16 were among Black men. All cases were men 21 to 43 years old.  One had been vaccinated against mpox. (Providers with vaccines against mpox can be found here.)

The state health department Friday reminded clinicians to talk to at-risk patients about mpox. The CDC recommends a two-dose vaccination for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, transgender and certain nonbinary people.