The US authorities are confident that they can “eliminate” monkeypox in their country with the acceleration of vaccines and treatments that prevent the spread of the virus, as announced by a specialist.
“We responded quickly,” said Ashish Jha, a White House physician, rejecting accusations that the president’s administration Joe Biden was caught by surprise when the first cases appeared in the United States a couple of months ago.
He stated that Washington has made a “very substantial” increase in its response, including the recent purchase of 800,000 doses of vaccines to Denmark, since the start of the outbreak in May, when monkeypox vaccine stocks were limited.
“The plan is to eliminate this virus from the United States. I think we can do it,” Jha said.
The World Health Organization activated its highest level of alert on Saturday to try to contain the outbreak of Monkeypox, that has affected almost 17 thousand in 74 countries.
The center of the outbreak in the United States is currently New York City, where the majority of cases are of men who had homosexual relationships.
Jha admitted that the virus spreads mostly in the gay male community but stressed that “other people are also at risk, especially those who are in close contact with someone who is infected.”