(Reuters] – Tuesday’s U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said it had removed a recommendation for a mask from the monkeypox travel warning to “avoid confusion” regarding the disease. This was in order to reduce direct contact.

A spokesperson for CDC stated that the CDC had removed the mask recommendation in the monkeypox travel health notice on Tuesday because it created confusion.

The agency suggested earlier that travelers wear masks to protect themselves against “many illnesses, including monkeypox.”

The CDC website states that while infectious diseases are spread primarily by direct contact with sores, scabs and body fluids but can also be transmitted via respiratory secretions through prolonged face-to-face contacts.

Around 30 countries in which monkeypox has not become an epidemic have reported cases of the virus, and there are more than 911 confirmed and suspected cases, mainly in Europe.