The World Health Organization has declared a global monkeypox emergency just as this year’s first cluster of cases emerge in America’s third-largest city.
Between April 17 and May 5, the latest available data, Chicago has 12 confirmed and one probable case of the virus recorded through sexual contact. By comparison, the city has averaged less than one case per week since February.
Nine of the new infections were in men who have been fully vaccinated, city health officials said. None of the infected people have been hospitalized.
They sounded the alarm, warning of a “resurgence” of the disease, now known as mpox, which is spread through sexual contact and has so far sickened 30,000 Americans – the most in the world – and led to 42 deaths.
Last year, the world was on edge as the virus began to spread, mainly among gay and bisexual men in the US and Europe. But the cases then subsided in late summer.
Shown above are mpox cases recorded in Chicago by week. The data points to an uptick after cases that previously leveled off at one or none per week since December
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has ended the emergency over mpox (pictured in December at WHO headquarters in Geneva)
Mpox caused alarm among health officials early last year when it began to spread rapidly among gay and bisexual men, peaking at 450 cases per day in August.
But infections appeared to have declined amid increased awareness of the disease and a rushed vaccination program.
The number fell below the milestone of ten cases per day in December and has followed less than two every 24 hours since February.
A total of 30,395 Americans were diagnosed with mpox and 42 people died from the disease.
But the sudden resurgence in Chicago has alarmed officials that the disease could once again spread undetected, even among those who had been vaccinated.
All of the patients were men averaging about 34 years old, they said in a alarm released this week. Of the nine with available travel history, four had recently been to New York City, New Orleans, or Mexico.
Thirty-three percent of the patients were also living with HIV, while one had been diagnosed with syphilis.
Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, said in a Facebook live this week: “Most weeks we haven’t seen a single mpox case, maybe one or two in a higher week.
“But just in the last few weeks we’ve seen two, then five, now another six come in.”
Officials have been warning for months that the US could face a resurgence of mpox this summer amid the movement of hundreds of thousands of people for Pride festivities across the country.
But nationwide U.S. numbers have yet to point to an increase in infections.
In the last two available weeks — April 26 to May 10 — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported another 62 cases.
The majority (33) have been in Texas, 15 in Illinois, four in Louisiana and California, three in New York, and one each in Alabama, Florida, and Oregon.
Texas state officials have said so CBS that at least 17 of their new cases were from the previous year that had only just been added to the CDC count. Another three were from January and February, they added.
There is also a downward trend globally, with a rise in cases being detected only in the Western Pacific.
The above shows cases of monkeypox recorded during the day in the US. Cases have yet to show an uptick in the country
This breaks down the cases by their demographic information, revealing that infections tend to occur in men in their 30s
This map shows the total number of mpox cases recorded by state in the US
However, amid concerns about a potential resurgence, the World Health Organization (WHO) still declared an end to its international state of emergency calling for the virus.
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus overruled his expert committee last July when he declared an emergency — perhaps due to the agency’s slow response to the Covid outbreak.
But on Thursday he rowed back the title, saying “steady progress” had been made in curbing new infections with the virus.
“We are now seeing steady progress in containing the outbreak based on the lessons of HIV and working closely with the most affected communities,” he said.
“I am pleased to declare that the mpox is no longer a global health emergency.”
He added that the feared backlash against the communities most affected by the outbreak “has largely failed to materialize.”
Mpox has been established for decades in parts of central and western Africa, where humans are mainly infected by animals such as wild rodents.
But the disease was not known to cause major outbreaks outside the continent or spread easily among people until last May, when dozens of epidemics broke out in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
Mpox usually causes symptoms such as rash, fever, headache, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes.
The skin lesions can last up to a month and the disease is spread through close physical contact with an infected patient or their clothing or bedding.
Most people are offered antivirals and pain relievers to help with recovery, and they are also told to spend time at home.
Scientists eventually concluded that the unprecedented outbreak was linked to sex between gay and bisexual men at raves in Spain and Belgium, marking a significant departure from the mpox’s typical distribution pattern in Africa, where outbreaks have not spread across borders. have spread.