The top U.S. infectious diseases official Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that monkeypox presents “a profound risk” to groups like pregnant women and children, although the majority of cases to date occurring among males who have been sexually involved with men.
Fauci said the importance of tackling stigma when it comes to tackling the spread of monkeypox, a disease that infected over 19,000 people across the globe during this year’s outbreak by the 26th of July.
Fauci head of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), stated that scientists must know exactly how monkeypox spreading and who is particularly at risk.
“We’ve got to understand the modality of transmission, the manifestations, also the risk for people like children and pregnant women. There’s really a profound risk,” said the doctor. “Right now, thank goodness, we have a report of only two cases in children, but they’re all risk populations.”
The focus has been on how monkeypox can spread between individuals and is spread through the body, with World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noting on the 23rd of July 23 that the cases to date are “concentrated” in the MSM community, “especially those with multiple sexual partners.”
But, experts have also said that anyone can contract monkeypox and that the spread of the disease isn’t limited to male sexual contact and women, nor is it only spread via sexual contact.