Turkey's health minister on Saturday reassured the public that no cases of monkeypox have been reported in the country.

Referring to media reports claiming that four people might have monkeypox in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that necessary tests were conducted and that the results came back negative.

"In Turkey, no patient has been diagnosed with monkeypox so far. Thoughts such as ‘what if’ should not cause anxiety," he said.

The disease is known to be endemic to parts of Africa, but a growing outbreak in several European and North American countries has raised concerns that the virus may be spreading around the globe.

More than 550 confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported from 30 countries where the virus is not endemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) had said on Wednesday.

Earlier, a statement by the Health Ministry explained that the viral illness is usually self-limiting with symptoms lasting between 14 to 21 days.

What is monkeypox?

Monkeypox is not a new disease. The virus was initially discovered in monkeys in 1958, which is how its name originated.

The first human case was in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970.

Monkeypox is a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox and has symptoms that are very similar but clinically less severe.

It has two main strains: West African and Congo Basin (Central African).

The West African, the milder of the two, is the one that scientists believe is currently causing infections outside Africa, although that will only be confirmed once the required analyses are done.