As gay men working in medicine, watching the monkeypox virus spread through our community has been devastating.
On July 23 the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency. But in New York we’ve been seeing the outbreak’s effects for weeks.
Monkeypox is not a novel virus. The infection, which can cause fever, headaches, body aches, fatigue and a painful rash across the body, already has government-approved vaccine and treatment as well as an established lab test. The national scientific community couldn’t have been more primed for a monkeypox outbreak. The U.S. contained an outbreak in 2003 and experts have warned of a potential epidemic for more than a decade.
