As monkeypox cases rise in Europe and other parts of the globe, health authorities are expressing concern about the unusual uptick but also pointing out that the virus is far less transmissible than the coronavirus that upended the world.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 92 cases across 11 countries, mostly in Europe but also in the United States and Canada. Several dozen more monkeypox cases are being examined globally but have not yet been confirmed, according to a data tracker compiled by a collective of global health researchers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert Friday, urging doctors and state health departments to be vigilant.
Monkeypox, which can be passed to animals and humans, is usually found in Central and West Africa. But many of the recent cases in the United Kingdom, France and elsewhere have no travel links to a place where monkeypox is regularly found, according to officials, suggesting the virus may be spreading through the community. A case in Massachusetts was the first infection identified in the United States this year; the CDC says it is treating four other cases as monkeypox after people tested positive for orthopox, the genus of virus to which monkeypox belongs.
On Monday, President Biden said that the United States had sufficient vaccines to fight a serious outbreak, and that quarantine would not be necessary to contain the spread.
“I just don’t think it rises to the level of the kind of concern that existed with covid-19, and the smallpox vaccine works for it,” Biden said at a news conference in Japan.
The fact that cases are emerging in several countries at once — with signs of “sustained” transmission in people — is striking, said Aris Katzourakis, a professor of evolution and genomics at the University of Oxford. However, epidemiologists note that monkeypox doesn’t spread easily: Outbreaks are generally small, and an existing smallpox vaccine could help protect people if needed.
The general risk to the public is considered “very, very low,” said Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
