Yet despite the growing number of cases, the World Health Organization has largely played down the outbreak. On June 24, the agency failed to declare a public health emergency — just as it repeatedly failed to issue emergency and pandemic declarations for the coronavirus, until finally declaring a pandemic in March in 2020.

Historically found in West and Central Africa, the monkeypox virus began to spread internationally in early May, when the United Kingdom announced its first confirmed positive case. The global reaction since then has been incredibly slow. Case counts seem low relative to covid-19, and the world appears to be lulled into complacency, like a frog in gradually heating water. Today, the virus has spread across more than 70 countries on six continents with no sign of abatement. According to the WHO itself, cases have tripled in Europe in the past two weeks. We need to wake up to the fact that we are already in a boiling pot.

The available European data show that most infections have occurred in men who have sex with men (MSM), who are generally young adults. However, there are reported cases among household members, heterosexual contacts and nonsexual contacts, as well as children. About 10 percent of patients have been hospitalized for treatment or for isolation, and there has been one ICU admission.