California has seen the first two cases of a more severe strain of mpox without international travel, but health officials said that the risk to others is low.

Both people in Los Angeles County were hospitalized but are now recovering at home, The Associated Press reported.

Officials did not give many details but did say that “at this point in our investigations, we have not identified any association between the two cases.”

Long Beach health department officials said that they have not found a close contact who traveled abroad and who spread the disease to the person in the city, but that person’s close contacts have been given a vaccine.

The other person was said to be in Los Angeles County, but no specifics were given, the AP and ABC News reported.

There have been about a half dozen cases of Clade I mpox in the U.S. this year, ABC News reported. Those have been linked to international travel but had no connection to each other, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Clade I, the strain found in California, is the more severe of the two strains. It also may be more easily spread, “including through close personal contact,” such as massage or cuddling, only sex, the L.A. Department of Health said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Clade II was the one that caused an outbreak in 2022, with more than 100,000 cases in 122 countries. There were more than 30,000 cases in the U.S. at that time.

Clade II still spreads in the U.S., but it has been stable, ABC News reported. The Times reported there have been 118 cases of Clade II in L.A. County this year.

Mpox presents as a rash on the hands, feet, chest, face, mouth or near the genitals. People usually recover within two or four weeks without specific treatments.

Only one vaccine — JYNNEOS — is cleared for use in the U.S.

©2025 Cox Media Group