The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has activated an emergency department for monkeypox, which signals the initial stages of public health concerns.
The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was activated on Tuesday to step up operational support to deal with the monkeypox outbreak.
For reference, the EOC was activated for Covid-19 in January 2020, the same day that the first case of coronavirus in the United States was discovered.
“Activating the EOC helps to further complement the ongoing work of CDC staff to respond to this outbreak,” said Scott Pouley, a CDC spokesman. “Clinicians and public health departments are already turning to the CDC to report and investigate cases of monkeypox,” he added.
There are currently 300 CDC staff working on monkeypox with local and state medical staff, and the EOC is expected to strengthen these measures.
As of Monday, the CDC had registered 306 cases of monkeypox in 28 states, with the highest numbers in California and New York, respectively. There are currently 66 cases in California, 63 in New York and 45 in Illinois. In most other states, less than 10 cases have been reported.
Epidemiologist and health economist Dr Eric Feigel-Ding said on Tuesday that the expected number of cases of monkeypox by August was 100,000 worldwide and called on the World Health Organization to take action.
Earlier on Sunday, the WHO said that although the global rate of spread of monkeypox is worrying, it still does not raise concerns about a global emergency.
On Monday, the White House announced that the administration was distributing nearly 300,000 doses of vaccine, with approximately 1.6 million doses available over the next few months.
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