The ongoing mpox outbreak in Africa is a stark reminder of the persistent threat of infectious diseases. It also highlights a game-changing opportunity to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and digital health applications in response to not just mpox, but any future infectious disease outbreaks.

AI’s transformative potential, when integrated into digital health tools, can empower individuals and healthcare providers, enabling a more rapid, effective and equitable response to emerging health threats.

The rapid advances in AI over the past few years, particularly since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, offer a glimpse into a future where data-driven insights and intelligent tools can empower us to act swiftly and decisively against emerging health threats. AI-powered digital health apps can serve as critical tools in this endeavour.

Imagine two innovative applications: one designed for people to safely self-navigate infectious disease outbreaks and another tailored for community health workers to efficiently provide vaccinations and medical care. Both can revolutionise public health responses and enhance our ability to manage outbreaks proactively.

During an infectious disease outbreak, timely and accurate information is crucial for the public to make informed decisions. An AI-powered app that helps individuals and families self-navigate outbreaks by providing real-time, personalised guidance based on the latest information can radically improve infectious disease response and containment.

The consumer app would deliver easy-to-understand and concise summaries of the pathogen, the most vulnerable cohorts, local exposure risk factors, a person’s risk of death if infected, and the availability of vaccinations and infection treatment.

Such an app offers a single source of truth for informed infectious disease management tailored to each family’s circumstances. The actionable insights are a lens into prevention measures, symptom monitoring and when to seek medical care.

Someone who lived with a Missouri resident infected with bird flu also became ill on the same day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday.

The disclosure raises the possibility that the virus, H5N1, spread from one person to another, experts said, in what would be the first known instance in the United States.

On Friday night, C.D.C. officials said that there was “no epidemiological evidence at this time to support person-to-person transmission of H5N1,” but that additional research was needed.

The coincidental timing of the illnesses, especially outside flu season, concerned independent experts. H5N1 has been known to spread between close contacts, including those living in the same household.

With the approach of fall and cooler weather across the United States, officials say the risk posed by the H5N1 bird flu virus could rise — and they’re taking steps to prevent the creation of a hybrid flu virus that could more easily infect humans.

Fall and winter months present more opportunities for H5N1 to spread and change since both cows and other flu viruses will be on the move. While most human infections in the current outbreak have been mild and self-limiting, each new host gives the virus a chance to get better at infecting people.

“To be clear, we have no evidence so far that this virus can easily infect human beings or that it can spread between human beings easily in a sustained fashion,” said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health. “If it did have those abilities, we would be in a pandemic.

“The second we know that someone gave it to someone else relatively easily, that’s a new pandemic, and it will be around the globe, probably in a matter of weeks,” Nuzzo said at a seminar hosted by the Health Coverage Fellowship.

The concern comes as scientists are urgently trying to solve the mystery of how a person in Missouri who had no contact with animals became infected by a type of bird flu.