Monkeypox Transmission in Healthcare Setting is Low

The current monkeypox outbreak in multiple countries has highlighted the limited knowledge about the risk of transmission from infected patients in healthcare settings to others, including patients and healthcare personnel, according to Cambridge University researchers. Understanding the risk of transmission, and specifically the types of exposures in healthcare settings that might confer higher risk, is essential for infection prevention and control strategies, as well as to inform recommendations for postexposure monitoring and postexposure prophylaxis, they said. 

Transmission to healthcare personnel in endemic settings is well described, but to date it appears to be rare in well-resourced settings, according to the researchers, who identified published studies of cases of monkeypox outside endemic regions where nosocomial exposure was described. They found a single documented transmission event, but variable definitions of exposure and limited specific details of the circumstances leading to exposure highlight the need for additional efforts to define and characterize exposures to monkeypox in healthcare settings. 

Based on published reports prior to the May 2022 global outbreak of monkeypox in nonendemic countries, the risk of exposure in well-resourced healthcare settings leading to transmission is low, with a single reported transmission event in the current literature.