Tecovirimat capsules, which were used in 2022 to treat mpox on the basis of case reports and animal studies.YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images

The National Institutes of Health said Thursday that an antiviral often used to treat mpox did not resolve patients’ symptoms faster than placebo in a randomized trial.

The results are notable because the drug, tecovirimat, has rarely been studied clinically for mpox, despite its wide use during the 2022 and 2023 outbreaks in the U.S. and Europe.  

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And the results came a day after the World Health Organization once again declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern, after case numbers swelled in the Democratic Republic of Congo and multiple other African countries.  Sweden on Thursday reported an infection in someone who had traveled to an affected region, the first reported case outside Africa in the current outbreak.

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