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California and Illinois declared a state of emergency on Monday due to the increase in cases of monkeypox, joining New York, which did the same last Friday— even though no deaths have been reported in the country.
The emergency declaration authorizes state agencies to allocate funds and resources to help localities fight the disease.
The United States has detected some 6,000 cases of monkeypox in recent months, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). According to WHO reports, there have been five deaths from the virus worldwide.
In late July, the CDC detected two cases of monkeypox in children for the first time.
Health officials indicated that both cases are related and that the children were most likely infected at home through transmission from a family member.
Monkeypox is not easily spread among humans: transmission occurs through close contact with infected skin, body fluids, or respiratory droplets from an infected person with whom sexual intercourse occurs.
In terms of severity, epidemiologists point out that cases in the current outbreak are milder than those described in West Africa and are hardly generating any hospital admissions.
