Monkeypox can easily spread outside the gay community, says WHO expert

TMZ.com

President Biden just declared monkeypox a public health emergency, and while it's already having a huge impact on gay communities, it could quickly spread outside of this bubble...doctor says front line.

Dr. Anne Rimoin, professor of epidemiology at UCLA, joined us Thursday on "TMZ Live" and revealed that there has already been a spillover between communities in the United States, and it will not stop unless that we take appropriate action.

She explains that "an infection anywhere can be an infection anywhere" -- which means it's time for ALL Americans to draw a line before the virus does not become more prevalent in society, in general.

The World Health Organization has named Dr. Rimoin to its emergency committee to deal with the monkeypox crisis, and it says the virus has been a smoldering problem for years in Africa. .. where she has been researching since the early 2000s.

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She recalls a 2017 outbreak in Nigeria and the symptoms were different than she had seen before, showing how it can mutate over time.

In Dr. Rimoin's eyes, we made the mistake of not caring because it was outside our borders... but now, when over 6,000 people in the country have been diagnosed since mid-May, she has been hoping that all the alarm bells are finally ringing.