Will monkeypox become an ‘established STD’? Why one infectious disease expert

The Nigerian doctor who treated the 2017 monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria told Fox News in an interview that the virus now “shows all of the signs of becoming an established STD,” as more U.S. cases arise and the Biden administration has called the outbreak a public health emergency. 

Infectious disease physician Dr. Dimie Ogoina treated the first monkeypox case in Nigeria in nearly 40 years. That year of 2017, an 11-year-old boy came to him with a chickenpox-like rash.

The doctor said he had “never seen a monkeypox case in my life — I [had] only seen pictures,” Ogoina told Fox News. 

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Doctors discovered the first documented cases of monkeypox in humans in the 1970s among children from Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Prior to that, scientists detected the first cases among monkeys in an animal facility in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1958 — giving the disease the name “monkeypox.”

But in 2017, Dr. Ogoina — a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Niger Delta University in Nigeria — noticed that the 11-year-old boy did not have contact with animals. The virus spread among his family, first infecting his uncle, then spreading to his mother, father and younger brother. 

A registered nurse prepares a dose of a monkeypox vaccine at the Salt Lake County Health Department on July 28, 2022, in Salt Lake City. On Aug. 9, 2022, U.S. health officials authorized a new monkeypox vaccination strategy designed to stretch limited supplies by allowing health professionals to vaccinate up to five people — instead of one — with each vial. 
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

After sending samples of the boy’s lesions to a lab in Senegal, Dr. Ogoina confirmed his suspicions: The boy had contracted the first case of monkeypox in Nigeria in 38 years.

The outbreak in 2017 grew to 200 confirmed cases in Nigeria. Since then, the monkeypox virus went from a rare disease to an endemic status in Africa — with cases spreading primarily among young, gay and bisexual men. 

While the virus is not an endemic in the U.S., Dr. Ogoina told Fox News that in his opinion, it does show signs of becoming “an established STD” — meaning it is spreading among the U.S. population like other diseases such as chlamydia, gonorrhea or HIV.

The CDC told Fox News that while the virus can be sexually transmitted, it has not reached sexually transmitted infection (STI) status. 

In 2021, the U.S. confirmed two cases of monkeypox from travelers coming from Nigeria. 

The CDC cited contract tracing efforts and “strong collaboration between CDC, state and local health departments, airline and airport partners” as reasons for containing the spread.

A man is shown in the “isolation ward” for monkeypox cases at a clinic in India.

Now, less than one year later, monkeypox cases are growing. 

There are 14,115 confirmed monkeypox (orthopoxvirus) cases in the U.S. as of Thursday afternoon, Aug. 18, 2022, according to the CDC. 

In response to a query, the CDC told Fox News that while the virus can be sexually transmitted, it has not reached sexually transmitted infection (STI) status. 

“It shows us that the virus is evolving and adapting more to the human host,” said Dr. Dimie Ogoina. 

“[The] current outbreak has led to questions about whether monkeypox is a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Monkeypox can more accurately be described as ‘sexually transmissible.’ In other words, sex is one of the ways that monkeypox can be spread, but not the only way,” the agency said.

“In the current monkeypox outbreak,” it added, “the virus is spreading primarily through close contact with someone who has monkeypox. This includes contact with monkeypox sores or respiratory secretions via close, sustained skin-to-skin contact that occurs during sex.”

Healthcare workers at Anna International Airport terminal in Chennai, India, screen passengers for monkeypox symptoms, taken on June 3, 2022.
(ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images)

With cases on the rise, states have scrambled to distribute vaccines and boost testing efforts as HHS expands the monkeypox vaccine to more than 1.1 million doses. 

The Biden administration is looking to lower doses, making the vaccine one-fifth as potent. 

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On August 9, 2022, the White House released the following statement, in part, about it.

“The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a Section 564 declaration, allowing FDA to use its authority to allow health care providers to administer up to five times the number of vaccine doses per vial of JYNNEOS vaccine.”

It went on, “Following last week’s public health emergency declaration, today HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra issued a determination under the Section 564 declaration of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that allows for emergency use…