Emergency Operations Center opened for monkeypox response

Updated: Jun 28, 2022 / 05:14 PM CDT

FILE – This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. The Biden administration has started shipping testing kits for monkeypox to commercial laboratories, in a bid to speed diagnostic tests for suspected infections for the virus that has already infected at least 142 people in the U.S.(Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC via AP, file)

(NewsNation) —The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has opened its Emergency Operations Center in response to the monkeypox outbreak in the United States.

“This action stands up the CDC’s command center for monitoring and coordinating the emergency response to monkeypox and mobilizing additional CDC personnel and resources,” the CDC said in a news release. “CDC’s activation of the EOC allows the agency to further increase operational support for the response to meet the outbreak’s evolving challenges.”

The monkeypox outbreak has not reached an “emergency level” yet globally, the World Health Organization said. The CDC, however, is activating its Emergency Operation Center to confront a virus it says appears to be impacting mostly gay and bisexual men.

A vaccine that helps fight against monkeypox will be distributed by the United States government to states where monkeypox cases are growing, according to the Washington Post.

There are 4,769 cases of monkeypox globally, according to the CDC, a large majority of which are concentrated in Europe and Africa. There are 305 known cases in the U.S.