Science
A potentially more severe strain of mpox may be spreading in L.A. County
A third case of a potentially more severe strain of mpox was confirmed in Los Angeles County on Friday, leading officials to investigate the possibility it is starting to spread locally.
The trio of cases, all reported publicly this week, represents the first time this particular type of mpox, known as “Clade I,” has been found in the United States among people who had no history of traveling overseas to high-risk areas.
The first case, reported publicly on Tuesday, involved a resident of Long Beach. The second and third cases, reported Thursday and Friday, occurred among other Los Angeles County residents. All three patients were hospitalized but are now recovering at home.
“At this time, no clear link has been identified between the cases,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said.
Nonetheless, “the confirmation of a third case with no travel history raises concerns about possible local spread in Los Angeles County,” Dr. Muntu Davis, the L.A. County health officer, said in a statement. “We’re working closely with our partners to identify potential sources and understand how this potentially more serious type of the mpox virus may be spreading.”
“While the overall risk of … exposure to the public remains low, we are taking this very seriously,” Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said in a statement. “This underscores the importance of continued surveillance, early response and vaccination.”
This type of mpox is different from the one that spawned a global outbreak in 2022, which is known as “Clade II.”
Clade I is potentially even more concerning, however, because it may cause more severe illness and spread more easily, “including through close personal contact,” such as massage or cuddling, in addition to sex, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said.
The California Department of Public Health said last year that Clade I has historically caused more severe illness than Clade II, but added that “recent infections from Clade I mpox may not be as clinically severe as in previous outbreaks, especially when cases have access to quality medical care.”
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is primarily spread through close, intimate contact, such as through body fluids, sores, shared bedding or shared clothing, as well as kissing, coughing and sneezing, health officials say.
Tell-tale symptoms “include rash or unusual sores that look like pimples or pus-filled blisters on the face, body and genitals, fever, chills, headache, muscle aches or swelling of lymph nodes,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said. Other symptoms can include a sore throat.
“Anyone who develops an unexplained rash or lesions should avoid sex and intimate contact and seek medical evaluation as soon as possible,” the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services said.
People should get tested if they have symptoms, officials said. Those who have symptoms should also avoid sex or close contact.
Clade II mpox generally causes mild-to-moderate illness and has been circulating at low levels throughout the United States since 2022, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
There have been 118 cases of Clade II mpox reported to the L.A. County Department of Public Health so far this year.
Before this week, there had been a total of six cases of Clade I mpox in the U.S. — all among people who had recently traveled to areas where this type of mpox is circulating, namely central and eastern Africa. None of those cases was linked to each other, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC says there have been more than 40,000 cases of Clade I mpox in central and eastern Africa.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the countries with confirmed cases, multiple modes of Clade I mpox transmission have been documented, including “contact with infected dead or live wild animals” and “household contact often involving crowded households,” in addition to sexual contact, according to the CDC.
These countries in central and eastern Africa have reported Clade I mpox cases since 2024.
(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
The risk to the general U.S. population in the U.S. from Clade I mpox is considered “low,” the CDC says. The agency classifies the risk to gay and bisexual men who have sex with more than one partner as “low to moderate.”
Travel-associated cases of Clade I mpox have also been found in a number of other regions globally, including Asia, Australia, Europe and South America.
The first Clade I mpox case in the U.S. was reported 11 months ago — in someone in California who had traveled to Africa and received care in San Mateo County, according to the CDC and California Department of Public Health. That person had mild illness, the San Mateo County health department said at the time.
Most people who are infected get better within two to four weeks, the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services said, “but antiviral treatments may be considered for individuals with or at risk of developing severe illness.”
The two-dose Jynneos vaccine is also available to help prevent the spread of mpox.
Those who only got one dose can get their second doses “no matter how long it’s been since the first dose,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said.
Vaccines are widely available, and can be found at pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS. People can look up locations to get vaccinated through the vaccine’s manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic. The L.A. County Department of Public Health also maintains a list of vaccination sites.
The vaccine is available to people at higher risk for the illness, including those who were exposed to an infected individual over the last two weeks.
Also eligible for vaccination are gay and bisexual people and other men who have sex with men; transgender, nonbinary or gender-diverse people; people with HIV; people who are eligible or are taking medicine to prevent getting HIV from sex or injection drug use; people traveling to sub-Saharan Africa or areas with Clade I mpox outbreaks; people who plan to attend a commercial sex event or venue, such as a sex club or bathhouse; people who have a sex partner at higher risk for getting infected; and anyone else who requests mpox vaccination.
Officials recommend people with occupational risks for infection, such as certain lab workers, also get vaccinated.
WASHINGTON — Amid growing national security concerns, the FBI said Tuesday that it has launched a broad investigation in the deaths or disappearances of at least 10 scientists and staff connected to highly sensitive research, including four from the Los Angeles area.
“The FBI is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and state and local law enforcement partners to find answers,” the agency said in a statement.
The FBI’s announcement comes after the House Oversight Committee announced that it would investigate reports of the disappearance and deaths of the scientists, sending letters seeking information from the agencies involved in the federal inquiry as well as NASA, which owns the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, where three of the missing or dead scientists worked.
“If the reports are accurate, these deaths and disappearances may represent a grave threat to U.S. national security and to U.S. personnel with access to scientific secrets,” Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the committee, and Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) wrote in the letters.
President Trump told reporters last week that he had been briefed on the missing and dead scientists, which he described as “pretty serious stuff.” He said at the time that he expected answers on whether the deaths were connected “in the next week and a half.”
Michael David Hicks, who studied comets and asteroids at JPL, was the first of the scientists who disappeared or died. He died on July 30, 2023, at the age of 59. No cause of death was disclosed.
A year later, JPL physicist Frank Maiwald died at 61, with no cause of death disclosed.
Two other Los Angeles scientists are part of the string of deaths and disappearances.
On June 22, 2025, Monica Jacinto Reza, a materials scientist at JPL, disappeared while on a hike near Mt. Waterman in the San Gabriel Mountains.
On Feb. 16, Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair was fatally shot on the porch of his Llano home. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department arrested Freddy Snyder, 29, in connection with the shooting. Snyder had been arrested in December on suspicion of trespassing on Grillmair’s property.
Snyder has been charged with murder.
There is no evidence at this point that the deaths and disappearances, which occurred over a span of four years, are connected.
A spokesperson for NASA, which owns JPL, said in a statement on X that the agency is “coordinating and cooperating with the relevant agencies in relation to the missing scientists.
“At this time, nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat,” agency spokesperson Bethany Stevens wrote. “The agency is committed to transparency and will provide more information as able.”
Representatives from Caltech, which manages JPL, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sun had barely risen over the Pacific Ocean when a small motorboat carrying a team of Indigenous artisans and Mexican biologists dropped anchor in a rocky cove near Bahías de Huatulco.
Mauro Habacuc Avendaño Luis, one of the craftsmen, was the first to wade to shore. With an agility belying his age, he struck out over the boulders exposed by low tide. Crouching on a slippery ledge pounded by surf, he reached inside a crevice between two rocks. There, lodged among the urchins, was a snail with a knobby gray shell the size of a walnut. The sight might not dazzle tourists who travel here to see humpback whales, but for Mr. Avendaño, 85, these drab little mollusks represent a way of life.
Marine snails in the genus Plicopurpura are sacred to the Mixtec people of Pinotepa de Don Luis, a small town in southwestern Oaxaca. Men like Mr. Avendaño have been sustainably “milking” them for radiant purple dye for at least 1,500 years. The color suffuses Mixtec textiles and spiritual beliefs. Called tixinda, it symbolizes fertility and death, as well as mythic ties between lunar cycles, women and the sea.
The future of these traditions — and the fate of the snails — are uncertain. The mollusks are subject to intense poaching pressure despite federal protections intended to protect them. Fishermen break them (and the other mollusks they eat) open and sell the meat to local restaurants. Tourists who comb the beaches pluck snails off the rocks and toss them aside.
A severe earthquake in 2020 thrust formerly submerged parts of their habitat above sea level, fatally tossing other mollusks in the snail’s food web to the air, and making once inaccessible places more available to poachers.
Decades ago, dense clusters of snails the size of doorknobs were easy to find, according to Mr. Avendaño. “Full of snails,” he said, sweeping a calloused, violet-stained hand across the coves. Now, most of the snails he finds are small, just over an inch, and yield only a few milliliters of dye.
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