PSA: Please don't sleep with people who have the pox.
There is a vaccine for these deadly variants, and it only spreads through close contact, but wider distribution yields evolution.
“The emergence of a case on the European continent could spur rapid international spread of mpox,” said Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert and professor at Georgetown Law in Washington. “A case in Sweden most likely means dozens of undetected cases in Europe.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/15/mpox-variant-clade-i-case-sweden
Oh my heart. Just reading that was crushing. Those poor people. Thank you for sharing.
Yes, self-play is better than risking the pox - and not just for the adults involved; in Africa, the strongest profile for mortality was among infants and small children in households with the disease. So brutal.