On 23 July, the WHO’s Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (PhD), took the unprecedented step and declared the monkeypox outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” ⁠— the highest global alert level for a disease outbreak.

Following this, and with 45 cases in Australia, Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly declared last week that monkeypox was now a “communicable disease incident of national significance”.

Most cases in the current global outbreak are occurring among men who have sex with men.

How can this group and others who are at risk protect themselves?