Health authorities have expressed concerns over an apparent prejudice against mpox patients.

Lim Sook-young, a senior official of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, told reporters on Wednesday that such sentiments are emerging amid a rise in the number of cases nationwide.

Lim said that such a bias tends to compel patients to withdraw and thus hamper quarantine efforts, adding that although the risk posed by the infectious disease is not as severe as COVID-19, attempts to avoid reporting cases could induce a spread.

She stressed the need for the public to be considerate so that those suffering from mpox symptoms do not refrain from reporting their cases out of fear of stigmatization.

According to the World Health Organization, 96-point-four percent of mpox patients are male and some 84 percent of those patients whose sexual orientation was confirmed were MSM, or men who have sex with men.

Meanwhile, South Korea has confirmed three more cases of mpox, bringing the country's total to 34.