US President Joe Biden sought to allay concerns about recent cases of monkeypox, which were discovered in Europe and the United States, indicating that he did not see the need to impose strict quarantine measures.
During his remarks in Tokyo on Monday, a day after he said the virus was a cause for concern, Biden said, “I don’t think it rises to the level of anxiety that we’ve seen with the emerging coronavirus.”
Monkeypox is rarely detected outside of Africa. But as of Friday, there were 80 confirmed cases worldwide, including two in the United States, and another 50 suspected cases.
One presumptive case of monkeypox appeared on Sunday in Broward County, south Florida, which state health officials said appeared to be linked to an international travel.
Although the disease belongs to the same family as the smallpox virus, its symptoms are milder.
Those infected usually recover within two to four weeks without the need for hospitalization, but the virus is sometimes fatal.
Biden said the smallpox vaccine also works against monkeypox.
In response to a question about whether the United States has enough stocks of this vaccine to deal with the spread of monkeypox, Biden said, “I think we have enough to deal with the possibility of a problem.”