Monkeypox cases surpass 700 worldwide, according to CDC

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday that it had more than 700 known cases of monkeypox around the world, 21 of them in the country. where research suggests that there is already community transmission of the disease.

Sixteen of the first 17 cases in the United States involve self-identified men who have sex with men, according to the new CDC report, and 14 of those would be related to foreign travel.

In the country, all people who have contracted the disease are on the way to recovery or have already been cured.

“There are also some cases in the US that we know are linked to other known cases,” said Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Pathogens and High Consequence Pathology. “Furthermore, there is at least one case in the US that is not travel-related and from which we do not know how the infection was acquired.”

Monkeypox is a rare disease related to human smallpox, but less serious. Its main symptoms are skin lesions, fever, chills and body aches, among others.

Usually restricted to central and western African countries, the disease has been diagnosed in Europe since last month, and the number of affected countries has been growing since then.

The main risk factor for contagion is skin-to-skin contact with someone who has the characteristic lesions of the disease.

Raj Panjabi, senior director of the White House Division of Biodefense and Health Safety, added that 1,200 vaccines and 100 courses of treatments have been distributed to US states, where they are being offered to close contacts of infected people.

There are two vaccines authorized in the country: ACAM2000 and Jynneos, which were originally developed against smallpox. Although this disease has been eradicated, the United States keeps vaccines in a strategic reserve in case they are used as a biological weapon.

Jynneos is the more modern of the two, with fewer side effects.

“We still have more than enough vaccines available,” Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the US Department of Health and Human Services, told reporters.

In late May, the CDC said it had 100 million doses of ACAM200 and 1,000 doses of Jynneos available, but O’Connell said on Friday that those numbers had changed but could not disclose the exact amounts for strategic reasons.

The CDC has also authorized two antivirals used to treat smallpox, TPOXX and Cidofovir, to be repurposed to treat monkeypox.

“Anyone can catch monkeypox and we are carefully monitoring cases that could be being transmitted in any population, including those who do not identify as men who have sex with men,” McQuiston said.