With the rising number of monkeypox cases in New York City, officials have reportedly declared a health emergency for the public in the city, calling it the ‘epicenter’ of the outbreak.

The announcement that came last weekend, was made by Mayor Eric Adams along with the city’s health commissioner Ashwin Vasan, who revealed that around 150,000 residents in the city could be at risk of contracting the infection.

Apparently, this initiative will now push the officials to issue emergency orders as per the city health code and make code provisions to carry out various precautionary measures in order to control the spread across the city.

As of Friday, 29th July, the city reported 1,345 cases of Monkeypox, while California, on the west coast, reported 799 infections, as per the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

City Governor, Kathy Hochul also declared a state disaster emergency due to the increasing cases of monkeypox as the state health department called it an ‘imminent’ threat to public health.

In their official statement, Vasan and Adams disclosed their collaboration with their federal partners to obtain monkeypox vaccine doses as soon as they become available, further adding that this outbreak needs to be handled with urgency, action, and resources.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has already declared that monkeypox outbreak signifies a worldwide health emergency.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO, stated that the outbreak could be stopped when the infected individuals, communities, as well as countries are informed about the disease and necessary measures are taken up to curb its transmission and spread among people.

As of now, over 22,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in about 80 countries globally. Africa alone has reported around 75 suspected deaths linked to the disease. Spain and Brazil also reported their first deaths related to the infection last weekend.

Source credit: https://www.livemint.com/news/world/monkeypox-new-york-declares-public-health-emergency-11659232564809.html