The Government plans to declare a public health emergency for monkeypox

Aria Bendix, Kristen Welker, Shannon Pettypiece —

The government of Joe Biden plans to declare a public health emergency due to the monkey pox boat, which already exceeds 6,600 cases throughout the country, according to The Washington Post newspaper and confirmed by two sources familiar with the NBC News network.

The Secretary of Health, Xavier Becerra, who will explain his plan on Thursday afternoon, anticipates that the declaration will facilitate access to emergency funds, allow data on cases and vaccinations to be collected, speed up the distribution of vaccines and make it easier for doctors to prescribe of the treatment.

A quarter of the cases in the country have been detected in New York, which declared a state of emergency last week.

California and Illinois followed suit Monday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international concern in July, a designation reserved for the most serious disease outbreaks.

It had previously been used for COVID-19, Zika, H1-N1 flu, polio, and Ebola.

At least 26,200 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed worldwide this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The disease is spreading predominantly through male-to-male contact, which was not the case in previous outbreaks.

99% of cases in the US affect people who were assigned male at birth, according to the Department of Health.

The WHO has recently advised men to reduce their number of partners and reconsider new relationships due to the outbreak.