hope not true: The US already has up to 300 monkeypox cases - nine times official tally of 31 - but lack of testing is leading to hundreds of inf

Dr Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases expert at Emory University, claimed U.S. likely already has as many monkeypox cases as the 300 detected in the UK

She said a lack of testing for the virus — with about 120 PCRs done so far — was to blame for so many being missed

But Titanji also pointed a finger at the complex testing process, with swabs sent to one of 74 labs and then on to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Other experts say cases may be being misdiagnosed as other diseases

America's cases are mostly among gay and bisexual men and linked to international travel

But there is at least one case with no links to travel or a known case so far



America may already have as many as 300 cases of monkeypox — more than nine times the official tally of 31 — but has missed hundreds due to a lack of testing, an expert warned Monday.

Dr Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases expert at Emory University in Georgia, claimed the U.S. likely already has the same number of infections as the UK — which is currently the world's monkeypox hotspot.

But she said the arduous process of checking swabs — which must be sent to one of 74 local labs and then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for confirmation — was leading to too few being done and many being missed.


Other experts say infections may not be detected because cases can be mild and clear up on their own, leading to patients not coming forward, or get misdiagnosed as a sexually transmitted disease like syphilis.

America's monkeypox cases are mostly among gay and bisexual men and linked to international travel — particularly to Europe, which has spotted about 900 of the 1,000 global cases in 21 countries.

But at least one patient in the U.S. had not recently traveled or being a contact of another known case, suggesting the virus is spreading undetected stateside. Officials at the CDC have not revealed where the patient is based, although it is likely to be either Florida or Pennsylvania.



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