Being examined by Congolese doctors, a Manfuette village teenage boy is suspected of having monkeypox in Manfuette, Republic of Congo Tuesday, August 29, 2017. The Washington Post/Getty Images
Since early May 2022, many countries in Europe, as well as Australia, and the U.S. have reported an increasing number of monkeypox cases.
As a viral disease native to Africa, monkeypox is usually transmitted by animal-to-human contact, producing skin lesions, fever, and body aches in people the virus infects.
Some recent cases of monkeypox have involved men who have had sex with men, however, experts say the disease is not a sexually transmitted infection but can spread via direct contact during sex.
This is a developing story. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.
On the heels of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a zoonotic virus seems to be spreading throughout Europe and into North America.
MonkeypoxTrusted Source has been making headway across the U.K., Spain, and Portugal since early May 2022. France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Australia have since confirmed at least one case in each country as well.
In the U.K., 20 monkeypox cases have been confirmed since early May. During a press conference on May 17Trusted Source, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said that these are mostly separate occurrences except for “a family cluster with two confirmed cases and one probable case[…]”
Recently, Canada and the U.S. joined these nations in tracking and tracing the virus.
As of May 19, Canada confirmed two monkeypox cases and said it was investigating 17 suspected cases. The Massachusetts Department of Health also announced a single case in an individual who had recently been in Canada. Several of the Canadian cases have been linked to this person.
On May 18, Scott Pauley, press officer at the Centers for Disease ControlTrusted Source (CDC), told Medical News Today:
“The U.K. notified the U.S. of 8 people in the U.S. who might have been seated near the U.K. traveler when they flew from Nigeria to London [on May 3-4, 2022]. Of these, one is no longer in the U.S., and one was not a contact. The remaining six are being monitored by their respective state health departments. None of these six travel contacts have monkeypox symptoms and their risk of infection is very low.”
The WHO officials have been tracking monkeypox’s path through Europe and North America for several weeks. However, with the data available so far, they do not know long the virus has been spreading.
