There have now been 11 cases this year of mpox in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Public Health. 

That far outstrips the four cases total seen in the state last year, though there were 145 cases in 2022, before vaccines became available in Connecticut. 

“We're not going in the direction we'd like,” state Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani said Monday.

The first case of mpox in Connecticut was reported on July 5, 2022. There have been no deaths in the state from the disease, though Juthani said it could be a “painful” infection.

As of last week, there were 1,374 cases of mpox reported in the United States this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly triple the 584 cases nationwide reported in all of 2023. The virus typically originates in wild animals and occasionally jumps to people, who can spread it to others

Initially called monkeypox because the virus was first seen in research monkeys, Juthani said mpox is transmitted through “close personal contact,” and is primarily “circulating among people who are gay, men who have sex with men.” 

Marwan Haddad, medical director of the Center for Key Populations at Community Health Centers, said the virus has already been seen outside that specific population, and could very easily spread more.

"We cannot always think about these outbreaks of infections as if it only infects this population and that's it, we don't need to worry about it," he said. "It does not know boundaries, in general."

"We learned about that with HIV," he added. 

The vaccine course requires two doses, and Juthani said “some people have received only one.”

“The goal that we are trying to communicate out to people is that we have plenty of vaccines, that if you received only one vaccine, please come back and get a second,” Juthani said. “If you have not been vaccinated at all take this opportunity because we do know that mpox is circulating in Connecticut and we'd like to be able to keep people as protected as possible.”

Haddad said it was "not a surprise" to see mpox cases on the rise. 

"It never went away, but as as the cases went down, I think people stopped getting concerned about it, and so the vaccination rates dropped again from there," he said. "The majority of the cases currently are in people who have been under-vaccinated."

According to the CDC, monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 “when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research, hence the name ‘monkeypox.’” 

The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970, and while cases do occasionally appear in some African nations, it is rare for confirmed human cases to appear in the United States.

Symptoms from the disease usually begin with a flu-like illness and swelling of the lymph nodes and followed by a rash on the face and body.

Transmission primarily occurs through contact with body fluids, sores, and items that have been contaminated with fluids or sores, such as clothing or bedding. It can also spread through respiratory droplets following prolonged face-to-face contact.