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New York City became the first place in America to record more than 100 cases of monkeypox late Wednesday, just over a week after its annual Pride celebrations.
The city's health department said it has now detected 119 infections of the tropical disease, half more than at the same time seven days ago.
Concerns were raised ahead of Pride weekend that the events - which drew crowds of more than 2 million - could spread monkeypox.
In San Francisco, officials have already linked several Pride parties at nightclubs to outbreaks of the disease.
America has so far recorded 605 cases of monkeypox, most of them in New York, California and Florida. No deaths were reported.
Experts warned ahead of Pride weekend that people should, if possible, avoid skin-to-skin contact, through which the virus is transmitted.
But health officials have mostly swept it under the rug, and there has been little effort to put up posters or have boots on the ground warning people about the disease.
Only 1,000 doses of a monkeypox vaccine were rolled out - in a city of 8.3 million people - before the event branded "ridiculous".
City health officials have yet to disclose whether any Pride events have been linked to the monkeypox outbreak.
But in San Francisco - where an estimated 1.7 million people took part in Pride celebrations - cases have already been traced to two events.
People who went to Afterglow about nine days ago were warned Monday about possible exposure to monkeypox.
The following day, Electroluxx – a large party attended primarily by gay men – also revealed that at least one attendee had since tested positive for the tropical disease.
There are growing concerns among experts that monkeypox is now “out of control” in the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently conducting just over a hundred tests for the virus every 24 hours.
It has now contracted with a commercial lab that could do more than 1,000 per day, although it is unclear when it will reach that number.
Experts say the poor testing regime is leaving many cases undetected, increasing the risk that they will spread monkeypox to others.
New York City and Washington DC are rolling out vaccines every two weeks for gay or bisexual men who have sex with multiple partners to curb the outbreak.
Yesterday, New York began offering 6,000 more spots for vaccinations against the tropical disease.
But within hours, slots filled up again due to high demand and many tried to get the vaccine empty-handed.
The rollout also faced a “technical glitch” that left some able to book their jabs early while others were locked out of the system.
It comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it would meet again to consider whether to declare the outbreak an international emergency.
Top agency officials met last week but decided not to hit the panic button.
But cases have now risen to more than 6,000 worldwide in at least 40 countries, with concerns that the surge in the disease could spread to more vulnerable groups, including the elderly and people with underlying health problems.
So far only one death has been reported in Nigeria, although there are fears that number could rise.
WHO Director Tedros Ghebreyesus revealed the decision to reconvene and said they plan to meet again the week of July 18.
Declaring an international emergency would result in the WHO pushing for a “coordinated” response from all affected nations.