Monkeypox is back! China is dealing with a “sudden” outbreak of monkeypox. China has surpassed all other countries in the world, with 315 confirmed cases of the disease in just the past three months.

The mainstream media has relabeled monkeypox as “mpox” as the United States and Europe’s overly sensitive populations were dealing with the outbreaks of 2022.

According to the latest data reported to the World Health Organization, China has surpassed all other countries in the world, with 315 confirmed cases in just the past three months—though irregular case reporting from Beijing means it’s impossible to know the true scale of the disease at this point.

Mpox is less contagious than covid, but since 2022, more than 88,000 people have contracted the disease, which can be painful and even debilitating for some. More than 150 people have died. Some countries have been more successful than others at containing domestic mpox outbreaks—and much of their success is arguably a result of proactive measures like vaccination campaigns. -MIT Technology Review

“Compared with the response to covid-19 … the [Chinese] response is certainly dramatically different,” says Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Even though [mpox] is less likely to develop into a large outbreak in the country, the Pollyanna attitude may encourage the spread of the disease among the at-risk population—unless they take a more active campaign against the disease.”

The WHO said monkeypox was no longer a public health threat as of May. “Overall, compared to where we were last year, we’re definitely in a different place,” says Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious-disease physician and chair of the Infectious Disease Society of America’s Global Health Committee. “We have much fewer cases, but we are seeing sporadic outbreaks in different parts of the world.”

In fact, as the WHO rescinded the PHEIC declaration, many Asian countries were already starting to see an uptick in monkeypox cases. Japan was the first Asian country to report a significant increase in the disease.