Human monkeypox

Since submission of our review of human monkeypox,¹ a final report of the 2003 US outbreak has been issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office of Communication, which includes the updated and final numbers of human monkeypox cases.² This report differs from the number of cases published in the most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report detailing this outbreak.³

The total number of human monkeypox cases has been revised to 72, of which 37 (51%) were laboratory confirmed. The total number of cases was changed from the previously reported number of 81, primarily because multiple cases met the exclusion criteria of the updated CDC case definition.² The final numbers of confirmed and suspected human monkeypox cases are revised for three states; therefore figure 5 of our review³ should have the following changes, where the number of cases “under investigation” is followed by the number of laboratory-confirmed cases in parentheses: Wisconsin 39 (18), Illinois 13 (9), Indiana 16 (7). In addition, the median age of those infected should be 28 years, and the percent hospitalised should be 26% (in table 2 and page 18 of the text).