Monkeypox in Florida Reaches Santa Rosa County, Confirmed Cases in State Now Exceeds 1800
Currently, Florida ranks third among all fifty states in the country, with confirmed and probable cases of the monkeypox virus at 1,870. KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images

Monkeypox has become a big problem in the United States, and President Joe Biden has declared that the disease is now a public health emergency.

According to CNN, there are now over 6,600 probable or confirmed cases of monkeypox in the United States since it was first identified in mid-May. Forty-eight of the 50 states also have identified cases, with Montana and Wyoming being the only exceptions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease a public health emergency last month, while several U.S. cities and states have already declared the disease an emergency. These include New York City, San Francisco City. California, Illinois, and New York have also declared a state of emergency. New York and California have the most cases in the United States so far.

In response to this rise, Biden named Robert Fenton as the White House's national monkeypox response coordinator. He is a regional Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator who oversaw Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada. Fenton will be the one to coordinate the government's response to the outbreak.

Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention Dr. Demetre Daskalakis is serving as the deputy coordinator.

Public health experts have criticized the Biden administration for not working faster in responding to the disease.

Cases Rising Around the World, Says WHO

Cases are spiking not just in the United States, but also in other countries. The University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Police has reported that in the past week, seven countries have reported their first case. This includes the Philippines, Montenegro, Uruguay, Liberia, Lithuania, Sudan and Cyprus.

The United States saw the largest spike in cases, but it is just one of the 10 countries which account for 89% of the cases worldwide. These countries are the United States (5,175 cases), Spain (4,298), Germany (2,677), the United Kingdom (2,546), France (1,955), Brazil (1,369), the Netherlands (879), Canada (803), Portugal (633), and Italy (479).

The WHO also reported that of all the cases, 98.8% are men, with the 18 to 44 years old age range, representing 76.7% of cases globally, Of the men infected, 97.5% identified themselves as men who have sex with men (MSM), and 1% identified as bisexual.

Which States Have the Most Cases?

The CDC has now updated its 2022 U.S. Map & Case Count for tracking cases of monkeypox. So far, it has listed a total of 6,617 confirmed monkeypox cases across the United States.

New York leads with 1,666 cases, followed by California with 826. Illinois has 547, while Texas and Florida have 527 and 525, respectively. Georgia also has a high number of cases with 504.

There are also several states with less than 50 confirmed infections, including New Mexico with 10, Oklahoma with 10, Alaska with 1, and Vermont with 1. Unfortunately, cases are on the rise in Louisiana, North Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and Michigan.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: US Declares Monkeypox a Health Emergency - Bloomberg News