Monkeypox has become more worrying in the United States as college students and staff are returning to campuses for a new school season.

Since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first monkeypox case in a Massachusetts man on May 18, the country has seen a continuous surge of cases topping over 11,000. 

Colleges are ideal places for the monkeypox virus to spread through contact, and it is by nature that college students always gather together and naturally have a lot of physical contact, Dr. John Goldman, a U.S. infectious disease expert, told China Media Group.

The epidemic has initial symptoms including fever and muscle aches followed by a skin rash, and lesions. Studies have found that the outbreak is concentrated among men who have sex with men.

Now it seems to become a new global threat, with the U.S. leading the globe in reported monkeypox cases.

Three months into the monkeypox outbreak in the U.S., the federal government finally declared monkeypox a health emergency on August 4 following suit of the World Health Organization on July 23.

Still a mess

Criticisms have been raised about the setbacks in the Biden administration's response to containing monkeypox, including slow initial response, delays with testing, data gathering and vaccine rollout.

Commenting on the slew of inefficient practices by the U.S. government in its response to monkeypox, epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina wrote in a Substack post earlier that "MPV [monkeypox] can be contained, but the window is closing," specifically pointing out that monkeypox, unlike COVID-19, is a known disease since the 1970s with tools already developed to deal with it.

Health experts said given the testing bottlenecks in the U.S., monkeypox cases are likely to be tremendously undercounted, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

Officials in at least 20 states and jurisdictions in the U.S. have complained about the delivery of the monkeypox vaccine, The New York Times (NYT) reported on Tuesday. 

A shipment of 5,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine that was supposed to be destined for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was shipped from the national stockpile's warehouse in Mississippi on July 19 but ended up in Oklahoma. This batch of vaccines was then mistakenly shipped to Tennessee and Mississippi in turn, before arriving at its original destination after several twists and turns. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, a batch of 800 doses of the monkeypox vaccine disappeared for no reason in transit for more than 96 hours and was eventually declared unusable, according to the report.

"This is happening everywhere," said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, adding that the response of the government is "completely inefficient" and the level of frustration and stress of local responders is unprecedented, NYT cited. 

Due to a lack of access to testing and vaccination, minorities are bearing the brunt of monkeypox cases in the U.S., data from the CDC indicated in late July.

Hispanics and Black Americans, who respectively make up only 19 percent and 13 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for 31 percent and 27 percent, respectively, of the total monkeypox cases over 4,600 as of July 28

"This puts the pressure on the public health officials to make sure they have access to testing and vaccines," John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital, told ABC News. 

(With input from agencies)