Amid a rising fear of Monkeypox across the globe, medical experts from India have shed light on the unchecked spread of the disease in the country. They have also stressed on how stigma attached to it is likely to hinder the testing process in India.

The Monkeypox outbreak, which was first reported in May, has now spread to 78 countries with more than 18,000 cases, according to the World Health Organization's last update issued on July 28. India has so far reported five confirmed cases -- three in Kerala, and one each in Delhi and Karnataka.

However, many cases may be spreading unchecked in the country, Rajeev Jayadevan, Co-chairman of Indian Medical Association's national task force on Covid-19, told IANS.

"Many more cases are expected in India. Imagine that the current outbreak of monkeypox is like a large tree that is growing underneath the Earth's surface. You can't see it over the soil but it's spreading unchecked under the surface," Jayadevan said.

Jayadevan said that while spillovers to the general population, such as women and children, are "extremely rare", there's a vast network where the virus is spreading, "which is mainly men who have sex with men and also have multiple partners".

While the chance of a super spreader event, like in Europe, is comparatively "small in India", the network "is more covert" here.

According to Ishwar Gilada, an infectious disease expert, the stigma attached to the name of the disease is acting as a great barrier for people to come forward for testing.

"The moment a suspect case of Monkeypox approaches the doctors, they will ask 'have you done any monkey tricks? Where did you get this disease from?'," Gilada told IANS.

"Secondly, there's always a stigma associated with sexual transmission. We are seeing that with other sexually transmitted diseases (STD) like HIV," he added.

Although 98 per cent of Monkeypox cases to date are seen among gay or bisexual men, it has not yet been classified as an STD.

It is because, "technically speaking, it can be sexual contact or through any substantial physical contact like what happens during a massage", Jayadevan said.

He explained that to define Monkeypox as an STD, it "has to be exclusively transmitted via the act of sex like gonorrhoea, chlamydia".