How to prepare your college student for a monkeypox outbreak

​In the weeks leading up to her son’s sophomore year of college, Mary Beth Miller has been stocking up on dorm room essentials, scheduling athletics physicals and researching monkeypox.

Miller, 57, wants to be sure that her son, Tyler, has the information he needs to be safe when he returns to class on his Granville, Ohio, campus. “I don’t know that this will impact him

whatsoever because of his age and_ _relationship status, but he needs to be aware of it, and as new information comes out, there needs to be an open line of communication,” Miller says. The

transmissible virus ​monkeypox has been making headlines. The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported at least 13,517 cases in 49 states. Several colleges, including

Georgetown University and American University in Washington, D.C., and West Chester University in Pennsylvania, have reported outbreaks, leaving parents of college-age kids wondering whether

their children are at risk and what precautions they might need to take as they return to campus. “Monkeypox is usually quite rare and takes a lot of contact to spread,” says Ginette

Archinal M.D., university physician and medical director of student health at Elon University in North Carolina. But she cautioned that new information is constantly being collected. “Things

are changing all the time.” WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT MONKEYPOX The virus is spread via close, skin-to-skin contact with the rash, scabs or bodily fluids of an infected person. Sex is a common

form of transmission, but other forms of close contact, including hugging, kissing or sharing a bed, could also spread the virus. Contact with respiratory secretions or porous objects like

clothing, bedding and towels, can also spread monkeypox, health experts say.