Mpox in Central Africa: complex epidemiology requires a constellation approach.

Currently Central Africa is experiencing multiple large concurrent mpox outbreaks spreading across several nations and at-risk populations via multiple transmission modes. This current surge of cases, framed in the context of the 2022 global outbreak, is challenging legacy understandings of mpox. Here, we consider how the political, economic, and public health conditions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have influenced the recorded epidemiology of mpox and how, given this context, current vaccine and outbreak response can be crafted for greatest impact.