Mpox had been spreading mostly undetected for years in Africa, until a 2022 outbreak reached more than 70 countries.

Health officials have zeroed in on Kamituga, a remote yet bustling gold mining town of some 300,000 people that attracts miners, sex workers and traders who are constantly on the move. Cases from other parts of eastern Congo can be traced back here,

Health Minister of Indian state of Kerala, Veena George, said on Thursday that genome sequencing will be conducted to identify the variant of the virus that the person diagnosed with monkeypox (mpox) in the state has contracted.

Miners, sex workers and traders pass through the remote town of Kamituga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been singled out as a major infection hotspot in the mpox outbreak