The Level of Concern Over Monkeypox Keeps Inching Upward. Where Will It End?

JUCM News first alerted readers to rising cases of monkeypox in May. At the time, the news from around the world was more of an oddity than a cause for concern. The novelty has now worn off, however, as the World Health Organization just upgraded the status of monkeypox to an official global health emergency. As noted in The New York Times, the global caseload now exceeds 16,000 in 75 countries. This is a rare and fairly dramatic move for the WHO; the only  other two times a health threat as such has been issued was with COVID-19 and polio. The designation is important in that it mandates a coordinated response among member countries around the world. As the Times piece points out, most of the monkeypox infections outside of Africa have occurred among men who have sex with men. Symptoms include fever, headache, back and muscle ache, swollen lymph nodes, and exhaustion. If you haven’t seen patients concerned they could have been infected, it’s likely you will—and you need to be prepared for testing and to work with your local health department.