Friday 5 August 2022 07:34 PM America has eighth biggest monkeypox outbreak in world, data shows trends now
The United States on Thursday became the first country to declare a public health emergency over the monkeypox virus, the only thing is: America's outbreak is four times smaller than the largest outbreak in Spain, with statistics showing that it has the eighth-highest case count per capita, official figures show.
The U.S. has detected the most monkeypox cases out of any country, with its total reaching 7,102 Thursday — more than a third higher than the 4,577 detected in the next highest country, Spain. But when this tally is considered per population — a more accurate measure because it takes into account America's much larger head count — the U.S. ranks eighth, with 21 cases per million people.
That's equivalent to one in 47,000 people having a confirmed infection to date. Conversely, in Spain, the number is 96 per million or one in 10,000, also higher than every American state.
The figures suggest a knee-jerk reaction from US health authorities, who declared the virus a public health emergency on Thursday. America is the only nation to have declared an emergency so far, after a sluggish early response that failed to get tests and vaccines rolled out quickly. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an emergency two weeks ago, saying it would encourage co-operation between nations.
Many local health departments have also shied away from warning gay or bisexual men — the ones most likely to catch the virus — even after the WHO warned people in this group to limit their sexual partners to help suppress the spread of the virus.
The above left panel shows the total monkeypox infections detected per country over time, and on the right it shows this as a rate of per million people. Experts said it was more accurate to consider the data in this way because it shows the difference in infections between nations. Figures are from OurWorldinData, a data platform run by experts at Oxford University
The above graph shows monkeypox cases per capita in Spain, which has the highest infection rate, and the five U.S. states with the highest rates of the virus — New York, Georgia, Illinois, Florida and Maryland. It also shows the infection rate for the whole United States (the dotted line)
The above shows the number of cases per state, and each states tally. This data is not shown as a monkeypox infection rate per million people
Pictured above are people lining up to get a first dose of the monkeypox vaccine at Obregon Park in Los Angeles, California
Figures for monkeypox infection rates per million people by nation were calculated by OurWorldinData, a platform run by experts at the prestigious Oxford University in the United Kingdom. DailyMail.com used population data from the US census bureau to calculate infection rates per million by state.
At the ground level, it shows Spain currently has the biggest monkeypox outbreak in the world per head with 96 cases per million people (one in 10,000).
Portugal has the second highest rate at 69 per million, followed by the Netherlands at 54 per million and the United Kingdom at 39 per million. Germany (34), France (33), and Canada (23) also have a higher tally than the US.
