According to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the monkeypox virus is unlikely to be eradicated from the US in the near future.
As the availability of vaccines has increased, people have become more aware of how to avoid infections, and immunity has increased among gay and bisexual men, the group most impacted by the virus, according to the CDC.
According to the report, low level transmission of the virus could continue indefinitely among men who have sex with other men. The CDC doesn't have a projection of how many people will be affected by the disease.
In August, the Biden administration declared a public health emergency in order to ramp up vaccines, testing, treatment and community outreach in order to eradicate the virus from the U.S.
The US is trying to contain the largest monkeypox outbreak in the world, with over 25,000 cases reported in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. There have been at least two deaths from the disease in the U.S.
The largest monkeypox outbreak in history is not normally found in countries where it is normally found. Monkeypox can be found in parts of West and Central Africa. People usually catch the viruses from animals. There was not much movement between people.
Gay and bisexual men are most at risk of contracting Monkeypox through close contact. Patients with the disease often develop blisters that are very painful. Sometimes the pain is so bad that people need to be hospitalized and sometimes people with weak immune systems die.
Men who have sex with men are the main spreaders of the virus according to the CDC. Anyone can come in contact with someone who has the virus. There have been 29 confirmed cases of children catching the virus to date, and 78 more are under investigation.
Of the 408 women who have caught monkeypox in the U.S., four are pregnant.
The percentage of patients who identify as gay or bisexual has declined over time according to the CDC.
More than 90 percent of infections are among males and a large number of cases are missing data on sexual history. According to the public health agency, the decline in the percentage of cases reporting male-to-male sexual contact is likely due to missing data.
According to the CDC, the outbreak will likely remain concentrated among men who have sex with men over the long term, with infections continuing to decline over the coming weeks and dropping significantly over the next several months.
The Jynneos monkeypox vaccine has been given to more than 600,000 people. Preliminary data from the CDC shows that the vaccine protects against infections. Gay and bisexual men are the focus of the vaccinations.
If the virus starts to spread widely among the U.S. population through heterosexual networks or contact that doesn't involve sex, the outbreak could get worse. According to the CDC, there is no evidence that the current global outbreak has spread beyond the sexual networks of gay and bisexual men.
If an animal population in the U.S. is found to be susceptible to the virus, it could cause it to spread more quickly among people.
Most of the time the virus is spread from animals to people. It would be hard to eradicate monkeypox in the U.S.
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