Latest reports this week state that there are about 200 confirmed and suspected cases across at least a dozen countries, most of them being in Europe.

The US and the UK are making some vaccines available while Germany is mulling options for vaccinations, isolation and quarantine. On May 23, Belgium ordered mandatory monkeypox quarantine; it is the first country to do so.

A senior official at WHO said measures like good hygiene, safe sexual behaviour, contact tracing and isolation will help control its spread, and noted that the virus does not spread very easily.

In a statement issued May 21, WHO said epidemiological investigations are ongoing, and reported cases have no established travel links to endemic areas. As the situation is evolving and surveillance is expanded in non-endemic countries, WHO expects more cases of monkeypox will be identified.