The WHO ensures that monkeypox will not become a pandemic, although much remains unknown about the virus.

The World Health Organization’s top monkeypox expert said she doesn’t expect the hundreds of cases reported so far to turn into another pandemic, but she acknowledged there are still many unknowns about the disease, such as how it’s spreading and whether the suspension of mass smallpox immunisation decades ago is hastening its spread.

In a public session on Monday, WHO’s Dr Rosamund Lewis stressed the importance of emphasising that the vast majority of cases seen in dozens of countries worldwide are in gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men, so that scientists can further study the issue and populations at risk can take precautions.

“There’s critical to characterise this because it looks to be an increase in a form of transmission that has hitherto gone unnoticed,” said Lewis, WHO’s technical head on monkeypox.

Nonetheless, she cautioned that anybody, regardless of sexual orientation, is at danger of contracting the illness.

Nonetheless, she cautioned that anybody, regardless of sexual orientation, is at danger of contracting the illness. Other specialists have suggested that the disease may have been discovered by chance in homosexual and bisexual males, and that it might easily spread to other groups if not controlled. Lewis stated that it is uncertain whether monkeypox is spread through intercourse or through close contact between persons participating in sexual activity, and that the hazard to the general population is “minimal.” “It is not yet obvious if this virus is using a novel way of transmission, but it is evident that it is still using its well-known route of transmission, which is close physical contact,” Lewis added. Monkeypox is believed to spread through direct physical contact with an infected individual, as well as through their clothing or bedsheets. She also noted that there is a greater proportion of patients with fewer lesions that are more concentrated in the vaginal region and sometimes practically hard to discern among the present instances.

“You may have these lesions for two to four weeks (and) they may not be obvious to others,” she explained, “but you may still be infectious.”

Last Monday, a top WHO consultant claimed the outbreak in Europe, the United States, Israel, Australia, and elsewhere was most likely caused by sex at two recent raves in Spain and Belgium.

This is a dramatic deviation from the disease’s normal pattern of distribution in central and western Africa, where people are mostly infected by animals such as wild rats and monkeys and epidemics do not transcend borders.

The majority of monkeypox patients simply have fever, body pains, chills, and exhaustion.

More serious infections may cause a rash and sores on the face and hands, which can spread to other regions of the body. In the present epidemic, no deaths have been reported.

According to WHO’s Lewis, while earlier episodes of monkeypox in central and western Africa have been reasonably controlled, it is unclear if people may spread monkeypox without symptoms or if the illness is airborne, like with measles or COVID-19.

Monkeypox is similar to smallpox but has less severe symptoms. After smallpox was proclaimed eliminated in 1980, governments ceased mass immunisation campaigns, which some experts believe may have aided the spread of monkeypox because there is now little universal immunity to similar illnesses; smallpox immunizations are also protective against monkeypox. Lewis said it would be “unfortunate” if monkeypox was able to “exploit the immunity gap” left by smallpox 40 years ago, but that there was still time to stop the epidemic and prevent monkeypox from spreading to new areas.