Monkeypox now a health emergency in US. 'Critical to confront outbreak' - Biden

Monkeypox cases: Worldwide, more than 26,000 cases have been recorded so far this year amid the current outbreak.

With over 7,000 cases recorded so far amid the current outbreak this year, monkeypox has now been declared a public health emergency in the United States. Globally, 26,864 patients have been reported so far, and a majority of these cases have been recorded from countries that have not historically seen monkeypox patients.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 3, 2022 health workers sit at a check-in table at a pop-up monkeypox vaccination clinic which opened today by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health at the West Hollywood Library in West Hollywood, California. - (AFP)

“I remain committed to our monkeypox response: ramping-up vaccine distribution, expanding testing, and educating at-risk communities. That's why today's public health emergency declaration on the virus is critical to confronting this outbreak with the urgency it warrants,” US president Joe Biden tweeted.

In the United States, one in four cases are being logged from New York. As per the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) tally, 1,748 patients have been reported from the state - the highest in the country.

Of the 50 states in the US, most now have monkepox patients. New York and some other states had last week declared a public health emergency over the disease.

As per the CDC data, 81 countries - that have not reported monkeypox historically - are currently reporting patients. The other seven countries - where the outbreak has been reported this year - are those where the virus has been reported earlier too.

Among sections identified by the US health body who are vulnerable are: "people who have been identified by public health officials as a contact of someone with monkeypox, people who are aware that one of their sexual partners in the past 2 weeks has been diagnosed with monkeypox, and people who had multiple sexual partners in the past 2 weeks in an area with known monkeypox."

Fever, headache, muscle aches and backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion, sore throat, nasal congestion, or cough, rashes in private parts are counted among symptoms.

As a large number of cases have been registered among gay men, health bodies - including the WHO - have also been appealing against discrimination.