The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global emergency last week, but in the United States, where the federal response and communication around the crisis has a ways to go, many people don’t know how it spreads, what it looks like or what care they can get if they suspect they’ve been infected.

Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global emergency last week, but in the United States, where the federal response and communication around the crisis has a ways to go, many people don’t know how it spreads, what it looks like or what care they can get if they suspect they’ve been infected. More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re all a little too familiar with the ways that evolving information can seem murky in the early days of an infectious disease outbreak. MPV, however, isn’t a novel pathogen. There are resources available to treat and prevent monkeypox infection, but the effort to get those to everyone who needs them in a timely manner has so far been hampered by limited supplies and lingering logistical hurdles. Latest research suggests the virus is largely spreading among men who have sex with men, who make up a large portion of confirmed cases. The challenge for public health officials is ensuring that people who are currently high-risk have the information and care they need to protect themselves, but without inadvertently pigeonholing monkeypox as a disease that’s exclusive to the demographics being hardest hit right now.  See our essential monkeypox FAQ to find out how symptoms of the disease present, who is eligible to get vaccinated right now and what people can do to protect themselves and others.