The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) anticipates the United States could have the most monkeypox cases worldwide in the coming days, due to ramped-up testing for the virus.
As of Tuesday, the CDC reports that Spain has 3,596 confirmed infections — currently the most of any country — and the U.S. trails that figure by slightly more than 100 cases (3,487 total infections).
To be fair, the United States has roughly seven times the population of Spain; so the per-capita numbers of monkeypox infections would be significantly lower than Spain's output.
According to the Daily Mail, the U.S. generally reports one monkeypox case per 100,000 people; and Spain's rate is approximately at seven cases per 100,000 people.
Citing that same data, however, the U.S. posts roughly 216 monkeypox cases per day, while Spain's per-day estimate is at 108.
The rise of monkeypox infections in America are a viable concern, due to cases popping up in areas where the virus had previously been under the radar, according to Dr. Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard University.
"The U.S. was slow to kick off widespread testing, and so now is detecting transmission chains that have been carrying on uninterrupted for some time. We don't know how much increased awareness, especially in the core communities of gay and bisexual men, will slow transmission down," explains Hanage, via The Daily Mail.
Hanage added, "But it is reasonable to suggest that the U.S. case count will continue to grow and will outpace the outbreak's elsewhere."
As Newsmax noted on July 15, the monkeypox infections attributed to New York City were overwhelmingly being found in men — with more than half of the documented cases involving those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer.
However, that doesn't necessarily mean the virus has been isolated within the LBGQ community. (Note: Transgender people were not included in the most recent data report.)
Citing CDC information, two American children have tested positive for monkeypox — the first recorded pediatric cases in the U.S.
According to the NYC Health data, there are nearly 12,000 worldwide cases of monkeypox.
Also, as of last week, every confirmed case of monkeypox in New York City — America's largest concentration of infections — included an age range of 20-69, with 35 being the median age.
Monkeypox does not occur naturally in the U.S., according to the CDC, and most cases of the virus have been found in people who have recently traveled abroad.
The virus is typically found in Africa, and the CDC notes that "in Africa, monkeypox has been shown to cause death in as many as 1 in 10 persons who contract the disease."
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