Monitoring and risk assessment for person with monkeypox virus exposure
Risk level of exposure | Exposure characteristics | Recommendations | |||
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Community setting | Healthcare setting | Monitoring | PEP |
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Higher | Unprotected contact between an exposed individual’s broken skin or mucous membranes and the skin lesions or bodily fluids from a patient with mpox or soiled materials |
Yes (21 days) | Recommended | ||
Any sexual or intimate contact involving mucous membranes (e.g., kissing, oral-genital, oral-anal, vaginal, or anal sex [insertive or receptive]) with a person with mpox | Being inside the patient’s room or within 6 feet of a patient with mpox during any medical procedures that may create aerosols from oral secretions, or activities that may resuspend dried exudates, without wearing a NIOSH-approved particulate respirator with N95 filters or higher and eye protection | ||||
Intermediate | Being within 6 feet for a total of 3 hours or more (cumulative) of an unmasked patient with mpox without wearing a facemask or respirator |
Yes (21 days) | Informed clinical decision making recommended on an individual basis to determine whether benefits of PEP outweigh risks of transmission or severe disease |
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Unprotected contact between an exposed individual’s intact skin and the skin lesions or bodily fluids from a patient with mpox, or soiled materials |
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Activities resulting in contact between an exposed individual’s clothing and the patient with mpox’s skin lesions or bodily fluids, or their soiled materials while not wearing a gown | |||||
Lower | Entry into the living space of a person with mpox (regardless of whether the person with mpox is present), and in the absence of any exposures above | Entry into the contaminated room or patient care area of a patient with mpox without wearing all recommended PPE, and in the absence of any exposures above | Yes (21 days) | None | |
No risk | No contact with the person with mpox, their potentially infectious contaminated materials, nor entry into their living space | No contact with the patient with mpox, their contaminated materials, nor entry into the contaminated patient room or care area | No | None |
*JYNNEOS are available for PEP in Korea. †Factors that may increase the risk of mpox transmission include (but are not limited to): the person with mpox infection had clothes that were soiled with bodily fluids or secretions (e.g., discharge, skin flakes on clothes) or was coughing while not wearing a mask or respirator, or the exposed individual is not previously vaccinated against smallpox or mpox. People who may be at increased risk for severe disease include (but are not limited to): young children (<8 years of age), individuals who are pregnant or immunocompromised, and individuals with a history of atopic dermatitis or eczema.
Abbreviation: PEP, postexposure prophylaxis.