Monkeypox outbreak ‘sparked by sex at raves in Spain and Belgium’

“We know monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission,” said Dr Heymann

A leading adviser to the World Health Organisation has described the unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox in developed countries as “a random event” that might be explained by sexual behaviour at two recent raves in Europe.

Dr David Heymann, who formerly headed the WHO’s emergencies department, told the Associated Press that the leading theory to explain the spread of the disease was sexual transmission at raves in Spain and Belgium.