The WHO said Saturday that more outbreaks will be reported as health officials uncover new information. The fast growth in community cases, especially in urban areas, suggests that a wider outbreak could be possible.
“To have it appear now – more than 100 cases in 12 different countries with no obvious connection – means we have to figure out exactly what’s happening,” Seth Berkley, MD, the CEO of global vaccine alliance Gavi, told CNBC.
“The truth is, we don’t know what that is and therefore how severe it’s going to be,” he said. “But it’s likely that we’re going to see more cases.”
White House health official doesn’t foresee major outbreak
Ashish Jha, MD, a top Biden administration health official who serves as the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said Sunday that he doesn’t expect monkeypox to have widespread effects in the U.S.
“I feel like this is a virus we understand,” he said on ABC News’s This Week.
The virus has been monitored for decades, and there are treatments for it, Dr. Jha said.
“We have vaccines against it. We have treatments against it,” he said. “It’s not as contagious as COVID. So, I am confident we’re going to be able to keep our arms around it.”
At the same time, Dr. Jha agreed that health officials should keep an eye on the situation. Cases have been confirmed in recent days in several countries, as well as the United States.
“I would not be surprised if we see a few more cases in the upcoming days,” he said. “Any time we have an infectious outbreak like this, we should all be paying attention.”
Dr. Jha also stressed ongoing caution amid the COVID-19 pandemic as cases once again surpass 100,000 daily infections. Variants will continue to evolve, he said, and ongoing outbreaks will reinfect people who have been vaccinated or had a previous infection.
“What we know is that this virus is evolving very quickly, and every iteration of it has more and more immune escape,” he said. “That makes it harder for this virus to be contained unless we continue vaccinating people and keeping people up to date.”
Third possible U.S. monkeypox case found in Florida
The CDC said Sunday that it may have found a third monkeypox case in the United States and is running tests on a patient in South Florida, according to Reuters.
The person is in Broward County and remains isolated. The case appears to be related to international travel, the CDC told Reuters.
Health officials are doing tests to confirm if the patient has the disease, with results expected “soon.” No other cases have been identified in Florida so far.
The first monkeypox case in the United States was reported in Massachusetts last week. The patient had recently traveled to Canada.
The second U.S. case was reported in a New York City resident who tested positive on Friday.
The disease, which is like human smallpox but milder, is a viral infection that was first found in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1970s. Symptoms include fever, headaches, and a skin rash across the body.
A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.