Monkeypox
2022 outbreak
On June 25, 2022, the World Health Organization declined to label the monkeypox outbreak as a global health emergency.1)
On July 23, 2022, the World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in response to the number of recorded monkeypox cases surpassing 17,000 globally.2)
Transmission
An international collaborative group published an article on July 21, 2022 asserting that while the “current outbreak is disproportionately affecting gay or bisexual men and other men who have sex with men, monkeypox is no more a 'gay disease' than it is an 'African disease.' It can affect anyone.”3) Nevertheless, NBC News ran a headline that read “Monkeypox is being driven overwhelmingly by sex between men, major study finds.”4)
Despite overwhelming media characterization of the infection being primarily spread through homosexual sex, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that two children had tested positive for the virus using polymerase chain reaction (PCR).5)
Link dump
1)
Kimball, S. (2022, June 25). World Health Organization says monkeypox is not a global health emergency right now. CNBC. https://archive.ph/WUFlA
2)
Kimball, S. (2022, July 23). WHO declares rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency. CNBC. https://archive.ph/WU4Wo
3)
Thornhill, J. P., Barkati, S., Walmsley, S., Rockstroh, J., Antinori, A., Harrison, L. B., Palich, R., Nori, A., Reeves, I., Habibi, M. S., Apea, V., Boesecke, C., Vandekerckhove, L., Yakubovsky, M., Sendagorta, E., Blanco, J. L., Florence, E., Moschese, D., Maltez, F. M., & Goorhuis, A. (2022). Monkeypox Virus Infection in Humans across 16 Countries — April–June 2022. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2207323
4)
Ryan, B., & Lavietes, M. (2022, July 22). Monkeypox is being driven overwhelmingly by sex between men, major study finds. NBC News. https://archive.ph/AFLt6
5)
Goodman, B., & McPhillips, D. (2022, July 22). CDC reports the first two monkeypox cases in children in the US. CNN. https://archive.ph/BGnDt