Mpox: symptoms and course of the disease

Symptoms of the disease

After infection, the first symptoms of the disease appear within 5 to 21 days. These include

• Acute fever (>38°C)
• Acute skin rash or single lesion (blisters, then pustules and finally crusts, similar to smallpox)
• Headache
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Muscle and body aches
• Back pain
• Pronounced weakness
• Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the rectum
• Inflammation of the glans penis

You are contagious from the onset of the first symptoms until the end of the rash, i.e. until the last skin crusts have fallen off.

The severity of the symptoms is individual. The rash is often discrete, with only a few individual blisters or pustules. In some cases, the rash is only limited to the genital region. In some sufferers there is no rash at all.

Course of the disease

The course of the disease is usually mild. Most sufferers recover after a few weeks. Immunocompromised persons, pregnant women, children and older adults who have not previously been vaccinated against smallpox appear to have a higher risk of a severe course.

The (rare) complications of Mpox include secondary bacterial infections such as pneumonia, blood poisoning, encephalitis or corneal inflammation of the eyes.