The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is one of the world’s leading public health universities. Our mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working i...

The global epidemiology of eruptive skin diseases remains poorly characterised, particularly in settings with insufficient health-care access and weak surveillance systems.1,2 Eruptive rashes are a common feature of monkeypox virus, varicella-zoster virus (VZV), measles, syphilis, and other infections. Varicella is often mistaken for poxvirus infection despite having been clinically distinguished from smallpox as early as 1767.3 Ambiguity in clinical diagnosis paired with infrequent laboratory confirmation creates challenges in resource-limited settings, such as the DR Congo, where mpox and varicella outbreaks can co-occur.

Background: Mpox virus (MPXV) clade Ib, first detected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in September 2023, spread internationally within months, prompting an emergency declaration from th...

Vaccine production must be expanded to combat this ancient disease, especially in Africa, but a lack of political will is holding us back

The Centre on Climate Change & Planetary Health welcomes a new Steering Committee | LSHTM

Background Monkeypox virus (MPXV) clade Ib, first detected in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in September 2023, spread internationally within months, prompting a WHO emergency declaration. Dat...