The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reportedly set to declare “monkeypox a nationally notifiable condition” effective August 1, thus directing states across the country to share surveillance data, including case numbers, Politico writes.
According to recent CDC data, there are nearly 3,600 monkeypox cases reported in the US, including 439 cases reported in a single day on last Monday.
CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund told Politico “Making the condition nationally notifiable positions public health to continuing to monitor and respond to monkeypox after the current outbreak recedes.”
The US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, reportedly told CNN this week “We need the states … to feed us data. Most of the time we can’t require states to do this. On Covid, until we declared a public health emergency and started to enact these emergency authorities, we could not require states to provide us this data.”
Quoting the World Health Organization (WHO), Politico reports that the agency declared monkeypox a global health emergency just last week. “WHO officials on Tuesday warned of increasing transmission, urging people in communities where case numbers are high to take precaution by avoiding sexual intercourse”, Politico Reports.