Victoria has not seen a new Monkeypox infection in the past few weeks. While it is too early to celebrate, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton thanked gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men for the turnaround.
Sutton’s comments came even as Australia’s health minister Mark Butler said that the growth of monkeypox infection in the country appear to be stabilising. “It does appear that new infection numbers are stabilising significantly in the area of monkeypox.
The latest data I had is that there have been about 135 infections in total since monkeypox first appeared in Australia,” Butler said, in response to questions from journalists at a press conference on Monday.
Mark Butler, Minister for Health and Aged Care.With the US Centres for Disease Control reporting around 65,000 cases in non-endemic countries (monkeypox is endemic in Central and West Africa), the threat of new cases being reported in Australia in the coming months remains.