September 2024

Summary:

• • • Mpox Clade Ib typing now available in addition to DNA detection
    • Free PCR laboratory testing for cases with justified suspicion and official notification
    • Clinical criteria include non-specific symptoms, maculopapular rash, and mucosal lesions
    • Epidemiological risk factors such as stay in endemic areas or contact with confirmed cases
    • Sample submission following established collection and shipping protocols to Virology Innsbruck

Information on Mpox Diagnostics

We would like to inform you that our laboratory now offers Mpox Clade Ib typing in addition to Mpox DNA detection.

Samples can be sent to Virology Innsbruck for PCR testing according to the collection and shipping protocols outlined in the “Mpox (Monkeypox): Information Letter on Laboratory Diagnostics”. The costs of PCR laboratory testing will be covered if there is justified suspicion and a notification is simultaneously submitted to the authorities in accordance with the Epidemic Act.

Clinical Criteria for Notification and Sample Submission

Non-specific symptoms:

• Fever (> 38.5°C)
• Myalgia, arthralgia, headache, back pain
• painful lymphadenopathy (localized or generalized)
• Fatigue (prodromal stage)

Maculopapular or vesiculopustular rash (localized or generalized), possibly with umbilication or crust formation, which cannot be explained by another cause (e.g., varicella, syphilis, zoster, scarlet fever, herpes simplex, or other poxvirus infections)

Painful mucosal lesions that cannot be explained by another cause

Epidemiological Criteria

Within the previous 21 days before symptom onset:

• Presence of an epidemiological link (potentially pathogen-transmitting contact with a person who meets the criteria for a probable or confirmed case of Mpox)
• Multiple and/or anonymous sexual partners
• Stay in an endemic area (e.g., West and Central Africa) or in an area where current Mpox transmission is documented (for current situation see ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR))
• Contact with rodents or non-human primates in or from affected areas that enables animal-to-human transmission
• Occupational exposure to poxviruses (laboratory work; all types of human and animal poxviruses, e.g., poxviruses, Mpox viruses, cowpox viruses)

Further Information

Further information can be found in the following documents:

1. ECDC Mpox Risk Assessment
2. Mpox (Monkeypox): Information with Focus on Procedures in Case of Suspected Infection (sozialministerium.at)
3. State of Tyrol: Mpox Information