The mpox outbreak continues to be a public health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday. The agency’s director-general also issued an updated set of temporary recommendations.WHO had first declared the emergency in August last year, after a new strain of mpox spread from the severely affected Democratic Republic of Congo to nearby countries.A public health emergency of international concern remains WHO’s highest level of alert.What Is Mpox?Mpox or monkey-pox is a viral disease in Africa. This was discovered by captive monkeys in 1958, after whom the disease was named in 1970. However, the name was later changed as it attracted many racist comments, especially on social media, where people wrote “the disease of monkeys” and associated it with the African people.However, under the WHO guidelines, the naming of diseases must not drive any unnecessary negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, and avoid offending any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups. Thus, the name monkey-pox became the ‘m-pox’.The outbreak led to WHO to declare an international public health emergency (PHEIC), from July 2022 to May 2023 in Congo. Now a new strain of the m-pox is infecting people in Kenya and poses a threat to many other African countries, including Congo.How to detect it?There are signs and symptoms of M-pox. They start to show within seven to 14 days of being infected. Therefore, for about a week a person may not know they have m-pox, and they can spread it by travelling.The earliest signs are getting a fever, sweating and having chills through your body.Other signs involve rashes, which start from a distant rash on the face and spread throughout the body. These rashes can be in different forms, sometimes a flat lesion, bumps, boils or scabs.Other symptoms include swollen lymph nodes, migraine, muscle aches, fatigue, weakness and back pain.How to prevent it?This is a contagious infection and can spread by skin-to-skin contact. There are certain ways to prevent the spread. The first one is restricting your movement. Avoid going out in public, meeting people and interacting with animals.Wear clothes that will prevent skin-to-skin infections. Cover yourself well so you do not spread the infection from your skin to other people.Though there is no vaccination for the disease, doctors have noted that smallpox vaccination works on it to some extent.Other ways are to keep hydrating yourself to get rid of the toxins from your body.Doctors also prescribe medications like acetaminophen and ibuprofen to treat the pain and fever one may experience after being infected. Antiviral treatment like tecovirimat has been said to work on the infection too.