GENEVA: World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that more than 35,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported from 92 countries and territories.
Speaking at the media briefing on monkeypox, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that almost 7,500 cases were reported last week, which is a 20 percent increase over the previous week.
The WHO chief also said that most of the monkeypox cases are being reported from Europe and the Americas -among men who have sex with men.
According to Dr Demetre Daskalakis, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official working on the monkeypox response, monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease but people who have tested positive in the US had some level of sexual activity. That can include penetrative encounters as well as oral sex, CNN reported.
Primarily, the virus is used to spread skin-to-skin and can also be transmitted by touching objects like sheets or towels that may have been used by somebody with monkeypox, as well as through close face-to-face interactions like kissing.