Mpox Prospective Observational Cohort Study
The goal of this multicentre prospective observational cohort study is to shed light on the following unknowns:

The clinical manifestations of Mpox infection since the 2022 outbreak in Canada.
The social and psychological impacts of Mpox infection since the 2022 outbreak in Canada
The transmissibility of Mpox infection
Viral shedding over time in infected individuals

The study is divided into Part 1 (corresponding to the acute phase of illness) and Part 2 (corresponding to the convalescent phase of the illness); part 2 will be optional. Participants enrolled during the acute phase of illness will complete part 1 of the study and will be invited to participate in Part 2 as well. Part 1 of the study will include the following three core components, at baseline and weekly (±3 days) until one week after the resolution of all symptoms (i.e. one week after complete healing of skin lesions):

Collection of clinical data through chart review and research staff interviews with study participants
Participant self-administered online questionnaires at baseline and a thrice-weekly 'acute phase participant diary'
Specimen collection for Mpox-related testing Optional components for Part 1 include baseline-only, questionnaire-only, and frequent sampling.

Other optional components for all participants include in the Image Atlas, an online database of clinical images of mpox, designed to provide clinicians and community members of what mpox looks like in real life, and the biobank, which will store research samples for potential future studies.
- EligibilityCriteria: Inclusion Criteria  Part 1:  • Being investigated for Mpox infection by a clinician based on clinical (i.e. symptoms) and/or epidemiologic (i.e. exposure to confirmed case) grounds;  Part 2:  Clinically confirmed to be in the convalescent phase (i.e. confirmed for Mpox infection previously) Within 12 weeks of symptom onset  Exclusion Criteria  • None - HealthyVolunteers: No - Gender: All - StdAgeList: Child, Adult, Older Adult - StudyPopulation: Our overarching goal is to characterize key clinical and epidemiologic aspects of Mpox infection in Canada in the context of the rapidly emerging outbreak. As such we will deliberately include people both with (n=250) and without (number to be determined based on accrual of confirmed cases) the condition of interest because it is important to have a comparison group of people who are ultimately confirmed not to have the infection - SamplingMethod: Non-Probability Sample