June 9 (UPI) -- As nearly 30 nations have confirmed infections of the rare monkeypox virus in the past few weeks, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is warning that there is a real risk of the disease becoming established in non-endemic countries.
The head of the U.N. health body issued the warning Wednesday during a press conference in which he said 29 countries have reported more than 1,000 infections of the virus since early May.
"The risk of monkeypox becoming established in non-endemic countries is real," he said. "WHO is particularly concerned about the risks of this virus for vulnerable groups including children and pregnant women."
Monkeypox is a rare disease endemic to parts of West and Central Africa that was first identified in humans in 1970. Since then, there have been a handful of outbreaks in non-endemic countries, with the first recorded in 2003 when the United States documented more than 70 cases of the virus.
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