The first human-to-human transmission cases of monkeypox have been detected in US as the threat level of virus is upgraded to 'moderate.' Two cases were reported in California and one each in New York and Colorado.
In Sacramento, the case has been identified as 'close contact' of an individual infected with the virus just three days ago. Similar is the situation with Denver, Colorado where another 'close contact' was discovered by health officials.
In both the states, the public health risk is being ranked as 'very low' as the health officials continue with the contact tracing. Information about the other two cases in California and New York has not been released yet by the authorities.
Health officials believe that the virus can be spread only by symptomatic people especially through physical contact with infectious skin lesions. Not exactly describing the infection to be sexually transmitted, the officials mentioned that it might be spreading through contact in the genital area, the Daily Mail reported.
As of now 14 infections across eight states have been detected, namely in California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Utah, Virginia and Washington.
The outbreak of the virus was first witnessed by US back in 2003, when 47 cases were reported from 6 states but fortunately none of the patients died. This year a Texas resident contracted the virus after visiting Nigeria.
As more and more European nations began confirming cases, the disease which was prominently reported in the western and central African countries, gained attention from health experts across the world.
With no proper explanation behind the spread, an alert was issued by the WHO and the CDC that everybody should be concerned about the virus. There were however, many speculations on how the cases were rising so fast.
Some Spanish experts thought the pride parade could have been the 'superspreader', after infections were reported from people who attended the event. Sexual Health was another aspect that was taken into consideration as health officials believed gay sex can be a major cause behind the spread.
At one point, the virus was also being referred to as a bioweapon by an ex-Russian Army colonel Ken Alibek, who claimed that in the 1990's the Soviet Union had been experimenting with various infectious diseases to use in warfare.
The most recent claim came from China, as a Chinese influencer misinterpreted a biosecurity planning report by a US non-government organization and went on to say that the Americans were working on a plan to leak the 'bioengineered' virus.
