Monkeypox could spread well beyond communities of gay and bisexual men, WHO says

The World Health Organization warned against being lulled into a false sense of security in the ongoing monkeypox outbreak.

According to the U.N. health agency, there is not much evidence to suggest that the disease will remain limited to gay and bisexual communities.

They could be a sign of a larger outbreak.

According to Dr. Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency officer at the WHO, cases of men having sex with men for most of the time should not be expected to stay that way.

“This really might be the canary in the mine that’s alerting to us a new disease threat.

Smallwood said that it is not uncommon for a virus outbreak to start in one group and then spread to other people.

She said that the canary in the mine could be warning of a new disease threat that could spread.

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency on Saturday.

The WHO now considers the outbreak to be a significant enough threat to global health that a coordinated international response is needed to prevent it from spreading further and possibly escalating into a Pandemic.

We have an outbreak that has spread quickly through new modes of transmission and we don't know much. The director general of the World Health Organization decided that the global monkeypox outbreak was a public health emergency.

The WHO activated its highest alert level for the escalating outbreak on Jul. 23, declaring the virus a public health emergency of international concern.

More than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported across more than 70 countries so far this year, and the number of confirmed infections rose from June through July. Europe accounts for 80% of confirmed cases in the next five years.

Almost all of the infections reported outside of Africa this year have been among men who have sex with men. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes that anyone can catch monkeypox regardless of their sexual orientation.

Most patients recover within two to four weeks of being exposed to the disease. There have been five deaths from the virus in Africa so far this year.

Smallwood warned of more severe cases if the virus spread to more vulnerable groups. Young children, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems are vulnerable to the virus.

Increased public health impact is possible if it spreads to other groups, particularly to people who are vulnerable to severe monkeypox disease.

There are a number of vaccines and antivirals that can be used to treat and prevent monkeypox. The U.S. and the U.K. have already issued hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses.

Smallwood said more information is needed to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine as the monkeypox virus continues to grow.

We don’t have full information on how effective and how efficacious these vaccines are against monkeypox.

She said that they don't know how effective the vaccines are against monkeypox.

Smallwood said that the WHO's call to declare a global health emergency would lead to more attention to the outbreak and research on vaccines and other modes of treatment.

She said that they need to be confident that the countermeasures are scaled up and that they know how to use them.

The World Health Organization does not recommend mass vaccinations at the moment, and the U.S.reserves the vaccines for people who have been exposed to the disease.

The report was contributed by CNBC's Spencer Kimball.