evidence: Smallpox and monkeypox vaccines, where available, are being deployed in a few countries to manage close contacts. Second- and third-generation smallpox vaccines have been developed to have an improved safety profile and one has been approved for prevention of monkeypox. This vaccine is based on a strain of vaccinia virus (known generically as modified vaccinia Ankara Bavarian Nordic strain, or MVA-BN). This vaccine has been approved for prevention of monkeypox in Canada and the United States of America. In the European Union, this vaccine has been approved for prevention of smallpox under exceptional circumstances. An antiviral agent, tecovirimat, has been approved by the European Medicines Agency, Health Canada, and the United States Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of smallpox. It is also approved in the European Union for treatment of monkeypox. WHO has convened experts to review the latest data on smallpox and monkeypox vaccines, and to provide guidance on how and in what circumstances they can be used. [...] Residents and travellers to countries that have long experienced monkeypox should avoid contact with sick mammals such as rodents, marsupials, non-human primates (dead or alive) that could harbour monkeypox virus and should refrain from eating or handling wild game (bush meat). In a previous outbreak in 2003 in the United States of America, owners of pet prairie dogs were infected through contact with their infected pets. Therefore, persons with monkeypox in any setting should be mindful of the theoretical risk of exposing animals, for example those who may be kept as pets in the household.