Health officials said Saturday they have confirmed the first U.S. case of a new form of mpox that was first seen in eastern Congo.

The person had traveled to eastern Africa and was treated in Northern California upon return, according to the California Department of Public Health. Symptoms are improving and the risk to the public is low.

Mpox is a rare disease caused by infection with a virus that’s in the same family as the one that causes smallpox. It is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals.

Earlier this year, scientists reported the emergence of a new form of mpox in Africa that was spread through close contact including through sex.

More than 3,100 confirmed cases have been reported just since late September, according to the World Health Organization. The vast majority of them have been in three African countries – Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Since then, cases of travelers with the new mpox form have been reported in Germany, India, Kenya, Sweden, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and the United Kingdom.

Health officials earlier this month said the situation in Congo appears to be stabilizing. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated Congo needs at least 3 million mpox vaccines to stop the spread, and another 7 million vaccines for the rest of Africa.

The current outbreak is different from the 2022 global outbreak of mpox where gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases.

Eight people were killed and 17 others wounded Saturday in a knife attack at a vocational school in eastern China, and the suspect — a former student — has been arrested, police said.

The attack took place in the evening at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in the city of Yixing in Jiangsu province, police in Yixing said in a statement, confirming the toll.

This was the second incident of fatal violence in China in a matter of days.

Earlier this week, a 62-year-old man killed 35 people and wounded more than 40 more when he rammed his small SUV into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai. The suspect was discovered in the car with a knife, with wounds to his neck thought to be self-harm injuries, according to the police.

Police said the suspect in the knife attack was a 21-year-old former student at the school who was meant to graduate this year, but failed his exams.

“He returned to the school to express his anger and commit these murders,” police said, adding that the suspect had confessed.

In Yixing, police said emergency services were fully mobilized to treat the wounded, and provide follow-up care for those affected by the attack.

Violent knife crime is not uncommon in China, where firearms are strictly controlled, but attacks with such a high death toll are relatively rare. 

In recent months, there has been a spate of other attacks.

In October in Shanghai, a man killed three people and wounded 15 others in a knife attack at a supermarket.

And the month before, a Japanese schoolboy was fatally stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.