Mpox can spread to anyone through close, personal, usually skin-to-skin contact including:
- Direct contact with the Mpox rash, scabs, or bodily fluids from a known positive case.
- Touching porous surfaces such as fabrics (bedding and clothing) and surfaces that have been used by a known positive case.
- Contact with respiratory secretions from a known positive case.
Direct contact can happen during close intimate contact including:
- Sexual contact with a known positive case (oral, anal, vaginal sex) or touching the genitals (penis, testicles, labia, and vagina), or anus.
- Hugging, kissing, massaging of a known positive case.
- Prolonged face-to-face contact with a known positive case.
- Touching fabrics or objects that were used during sexual contact of a known positive case.
A pregnant individual can also spread the Mpox virus to their fetus through the placenta.
It is also possible to get Mpox from an infected animals by scratching, petting, or being bitten and also by preparing or eating meat from an infected animal.
An individual can spread Mpox from the time symptoms start until their rash has fully healed and fresh layer of skin has formed.