EXPLAINER: Can the spread of monkeypox be stopped?

By MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer

LONDON (AP) — Since May, nearly 90 countries have reported more than 31,000 cases of monkeypox. The World Health Organization classified the escalating outbreak of the once-rare disease as an international emergency last month. The U.S. declared it a national emergency last week. But that doesn’t mean monkeypox is the next pandemic. It does not spread as easily as COVID-19 and it is not spreading over the entire world. Outside of Africa, 98% of cases are in men who have sex with men. Scientists say stopping the outbreak among those men could halt the disease’s transmission in Europe and North America.