LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The federal government declared a public health emergency Thursday to bolster the response to the monkeypox outbreak that has infected more than 7,100 Americans.

Locally, doctors hope that will mean more resources headed their way.

"I think the bottom line is we're all glad that our federal partners have decided to make this an emergency," said Dr. Jeffrey Howard, interim director and chief health strategist for the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness. "They've acknowledged that we have an outbreak in this country, and people need to pay attention to it."

Howard said there are six known cases of monkeypox in Jefferson County. According to the health department's website, three of those patients have recovered, while the other three are isolating at home. Howard said two of the cases are connected but could not talk any more on specifics. He said he does not believe any of these patients have needed to be hospitalized. 

"For the most part, monkeypox is a minor illness," Howard said. "Most people will get the rash, will feel bad, and the fatality rate is extraordinarily low."

Across the river in southern Indiana, Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel said he knows of one monkeypox case in the county. 

"I haven't seen a follow-up to see if that's completely recovered or in active recovery, but it's been very stable and contained to this point," Yazel said. 

Doctors, at this point, do not believe this will be come as widespread as COVID-19 cases.

"I think all of us are still a little scarred by the pandemic and what an issue that became," Yazel said. "This doesn't appear that it's going to be anything approaching that same level."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of monkeypox include fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and pimple-like bumps/rash on many parts of the body.

There is a vaccine, Jynneos, which is considered the main medical weapon against monkeypox. But supplies are limited. The two doses are given 28 days apart.

The federal government has faced criticism over monkeypox vaccine availability. Clinics in major cities such as New York and San Francisco said they haven’t received enough of the two-shot vaccine to meet demand. The White House said it has made more than 1.1 million doses available and has helped to boost domestic diagnostic capacity to 80,000 tests per week.

Howard said he's pushing to get more vaccine doses to Louisville. 

"There's not enough vaccine in the U.S., period, at this point," he said. "I just held a roundtable with some of our LGBTQ+ community — because they are at the highest risk for this illness — and they told me, 'We want vaccine.' And so we're doing everything in our power to get more vaccine here and we're advocating hard for the Louisville community to get more vaccine."

Howard said a shipment of more than 500 doses is expected soon in Louisville, and the health department has a plan to allocate those.

No one in the United States has died. A few deaths have been reported in other countries.

Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals. It does not usually spread easily among people.

But in May, a wave of unexpected cases began emerging in Europe and the United States. Now, more than 26,000 cases have been reported in countries that traditionally have not seen monkeypox.

"Monkeypox has been around for a long, long time, but it's just now starting to spread in our communities," Howard said. "In fact, when we used to vaccinate against smallpox, people were protected. So until the late 70s/early 80s, we were all immune. But because we no longer get the smallpox vaccine, that saw an opportunity for this virus to spread."

According to the CDC, the monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox. Monkeypox is not related to chickenpox.

Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. The Associated Press contributed to this report.  All Rights Reserved.