Monkeypox cases in the United States reached a record high of 1,424 on Monday, the highest tally since the global outbreak.
With 8,934 cases overall as of Monday, the United States is on track to surpass 9,000 confirmed infections for the first time when officials release updated data on Tuesday.
According to Dr. Rachel Cox, an assistant professor at the Mass General Health Institute of Health Professionals, “as we move into the fall, I’m concerned about outbreaks on college campuses as they are often a place where individuals engage in higher risk sexual activity and are in close contact with many different people.”
‘We need to make sure we’re prepared to allocate resources like tests, vaccines, and antivirals to places that may become hotspots.’
Not all experts believe the outbreak will absolutely spiral out of control, though.
Dr Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration and current board member at pharma-giant Pfizer, told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday that while difficult, it is possible to prevent monkeypox from becoming an endemic virus a prospect officials likely failed with Covid.
‘There’s a potential to get this back in the box but its going to be very difficult at this point,’ Gottlieb said.
‘We’re continuing to look for cases in the community of men who have sex with men, its primarily spreading in that community, but there’s no question it has spread outside that community at this point and I think we need to start looking for cases more broadly.’
