U.S. Officials Are Releasing a Stockpile of Monkeypox Vaccines As New Cases Arise

• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating five cases of Monkeypox currently, shortly after officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 80+ cases globally across Europe, as well as Australia and Canada.

• Currently, all confirmed cases have been traced back to men and are related to international travel, with CDC officials indicating that there's no evidence to suggest monkeypox has become increasingly viral.

• Monkeypox is a rare disease, having been discovered in 1958 in monkeys used for clinical research; infection can lead to flu-like symptoms, rashes and in severe cases, lesions that form across the body.

• Below, you'll learn: What is monkeypox? What are the symptoms of monkeypox? How does monkeypox spread and is it contagious? And Can monkeypox be treated?

Federal health officials are investigating the cause of five cases of monkeypox across the United States, according to CDC updates earlier this week. So far, officials say all cases have been linked to men who have recently traveled internationally, and there isn't any evidence to suggest that the mysterious uptick in international cases means current cases are increasingly viral, as reported by NBC News. Health officials confirmed this year's first monkeypox case in Massachusetts in mid-May, but are reportedly investigating four additional cases in New York, Florida and Utah.

Monkeypox is more commonly recorded in African countries, but there's been a string of new cases popping up in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal as well as Canada, among other nations, according to the New York Times. Investigators are reportedly still unsure of how monkeypox began spreading through European nations and in North America, but federal health officials are issuing new warnings of a "greater" risk to the LGBTQ+ community based on commonalities among current cases, per CNN. While anyone may contract monkeypox through close personal contact, CDC officials indicate that many of those impacted globally are men who identify as gay or bisexual.

WHO officers said Friday it was also actively investigating 80+ confirmed cases around the globe, with as many as 50 pending cases at the time — a rarity for monkeypox, as the disease doesn't usually spread through human-to-human transmission.

Additionally, CDC officials are working to distribute a targeted amount of monkeypox vaccines from the Strategic National Stockpile for those who have been in contact with infected individuals, per reports.

As more information is released about this year's monkeypox outbreak, some of the information in this story may have changed since it was last updated. For the most up-to-date information, please visit online resources provided by the CDC, WHO, and your local public health department.

What is monkeypox?

Often considered rare by leading health experts, monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 in monkeys used for clinical research, and is thought to be from the same collection of viruses that include smallpox — it functions similarly to horsepox and cowpox, among others. According to the CDC, the first recorded human case of monkeypox occurred in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many modern monkeypox infections still occur in this same regional area as well as in other central and western African nations.

"Monkeypox is a very rare viral infection caused by an 'orthopox' virus, similar to smallpox — the infection causes painful blisters on the skin that fill with fluid and pus," says Robert Amler, M.D., a former CDC officer and the dean of the school of health sciences and practices at New York Medical College.

"While it can become severe and even deadly, monkeypox has never caused a sustained outbreak in the United States, and an effective vaccine was developed in 2019," he adds. "It is most prevalent in western and central Africa, and mostly spread by animal contact, like scratches and bites — most commonly from rodents."

While it is indeed rare, more than 1,000 cases of monkeypox are recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo annually. The most significant outbreak of monkeypox here in the U.S. was in 2003, when 47 cases were linked to a shipment of animals imported from Ghana.

What are the symptoms of monkeypox?

Spread of the disease often is characterized by the painful lesions and blisters that monkeypox has become synonymous with, but not all cases progress to this severe state. In fact, most individuals don't know they've been exposed to monkeypox at first, as viral incubation can take anywhere from seven to 21 days in total. According to the CDC, most monkeypox cases start presenting mild symptoms that people would associate with the flu or a very bad cold.

These symptoms include:

1. Fever

2. Headache

3. Comprehensive muscle and backaches

4. Body chills

5. Fatigue and exhaustion

Cases of monkeypox often progress into severe symptoms, Dr. Amler explains, which is when the disease's hallmark lesions come into play. About one to three days after experiencing fever and fatigue, lesions progress through five distinct stages — which include visible pustules and scabbing — before they fall off the skin.

All in all, most monkeypox symptoms can last anywhere from two to four weeks. Monkeypox symptoms can't usually be mitigated as there isn't a specific treatment available to those who contract the disease, though some healthcare providers have historically turned to smallpox-specific antiviral medications with some success.

How is Monkeypox transmitted and how does the disease spread?

As Dr. Amler established, monkeypox is transmitted through close contact, which presents a myriad of ways it can spread. Historically, monkeypox is thought to be usually transmitted from an infected animal to a human through a bite or a scratch; infected rodents tend to be the most common source of infection, Dr. Amler adds. "It may occasionally come from close contact with an infected human or handling bushmeat," he says.

In the case of humans, monkeypox seemingly spreads through direct or indirect contact with bodily fluids and secretions from wounds and lesions. It's possible that this occurs with close face-to-face contact, or interaction that's sexual in nature, but not exclusively one or the other, federal officials stress.

When discussing current monkeypox cases and the CDC's newly issued warnings for the LGBTQ+ community, John Brooks, M.D., the agency's chief medical officer of prevention, stressed to U.S. media that current risks weren't "exclusively to the gay and bisexual community in the US."

"Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted infection in the typical sense, but it can be transmitted during sexual and intimate content, as well as with personal contact and shared bedding and clothing," Dr. Brooks added. "Anyone, anyone, can develop and spread monkeypox infection… [but] many of those affected in the current global outbreak identified as gay and bisexual men."

Once contracted, an individual experiencing a monkeypox illness may spread the disease through large respiratory droplets as well. Unlike SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the spread of COVID-19, CDC officials indicate these respiratory droplets must be quite large and requires prolonged exposure.

How is Monkeypox treated?

Currently, there isn't a known, safe treatment for anyone suffering from a monkeypox virus infection, and symptoms are treated holistically as individuals recover. Healthcare providers have access to a smallpox vaccine that was approved in 2019 which may prevent transmission for anyone exposed to monkeypox. But some healthcare providers are worried that a lack of smallpox vaccination in recent decades could prove problematic, per reports.

According to Reuters, U.S. federal health officials are gathering a stockpile of a two-dose vaccine, Jynneos, that can be used to prevent monkeypox in those over the age of 18. As many as 1,000 doses have been ready in the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile, and vaccine manufacturers are working on making more supply available if current cases progress to more monkeypox spread in 2022.

Is Monkeypox contagious?

The disease is indeed contagious through personal contact in multiple natures and contexts. But healthcare providers are keen to point out that the disease isn't as easily spread as COVID-19. Plus, previous instances of monkeypox spread in the U.S. — including a crop of cases just last year — haven't caused widespread outbreaks that healthcare professionals would deem highly contagious.

"Monkeypox has never caused a sustained outbreak in the United States, and an effective vaccine was developed in 2019," Dr. Amler adds.

In 2021, two confirmed cases, reported in Texas and Maryland, didn't lead to further spread; in both cases, the impacted individual had traveled to Nigeria, which had a singular outbreak in 2017.

While risk is exponentially low currently, CDC officials are asking the American public to contact their primary healthcare provider if "they have a new rash and are concerned about monkeypox."

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