Everything you need to know about the monkeypox health emergency

Enlarge / A negatively stained electron micrograph of a monkeypox virus virion in vesicular fluid human. Getty | BSIP

On May 7, UK health officials reported a case of monkeypox in a person who had recently traveled to Nigeria. The case was very rare but not necessarily alarming; a small number of travel-related cases of monkeypox appear from time to time. The UK recorded seven such cases between 2018 and 2021. But this year the cases kept coming.

As of May 16, the UK had reported six additional cases, mostly unrelated and all unrelated to travel, suggesting nationwide transmission. On May 18, Portugal reported five confirmed cases and more than 20 suspected cases. That same day, Massachusetts health officials reported the first US case. Spain, meanwhile, issued an outbreak alert after 23 people showed signs of an unusual infection. Cases in Italy and Sweden followed.

In the past, transmission of monkeypox has largely died out on its own. Experts did not consider the virus to be easily transmitted. Still, the cases kept coming. As of May 26, the multinational outbreak had exceeded 300 cases in more than 20 countries. At the time, the United States had only nine confirmed cases, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it presumed national community transmission was already underway. By early June, the global tally exceeded 1,300 cases in 31 countries, including 45 cases in the United States.

As June turned into July, health experts around the world raced to deal with the proliferation epidemic. On July 23, with more than 16,000 cases worldwide in more than 70 countries, the World Health Organization declared the monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (USPPI). This is the agency's highest alert level, and a level that many health experts believe should have been reached in June.

Shortly after the PHEIC declaration, the United States took the lead in the world rankings for the highest monkeypox cases. And on August 4, with more than 6,600 cases in 48 states, the US government declared the outbreak a public health emergency.

As of August 9, just over four months after the first case was reported in the UK, more than 30,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in at least 88 countries, including at least 11 deaths. The number of cases in the United States now exceeds 8,900.

Below is a handy reference guide for all important information about this global and national health emergency. The guide will be updated periodically as new information becomes available.

Contents What is monkey pox? The virus Animal hosts where it is usually found