While the US struggles to crush them completely coronavirus pandemicincreasing cases of monkey pox around the world are of concern to health authorities.
Monkeypox is the disease caused by the monkeypox virus and belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox. Its symptoms are similar to smallpox but are generally milder and it’s rarely fatal, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Symptoms include fever, body aches, chills, and fatigue, and the possibility of painful, patchy bumps developing on parts of the infected person’s body. A small percentage of those infected can develop sepsis and other serious and potentially fatal complications. It can be spread through skin-to-skin contact, but also by touching bedding used by another person infected with the virus.
Anyone can get monkeypox, so it’s important to be prepared and have all the information you can. Here’s everything we know.
US monkeypox infections
From Monday, USA Officials have confirmed 1,814 cases of monkeypox in 45 states.
While there is a documented concentration of monkeypox cases in the LGBT+ community, monkeypox can be transmitted to anyone, regardless of sexual orientation.
More than 12,000 cases have been reported in countries where the virus is not usually widespread.
No one has died from monkeypox in the US, but health officials fear the window for controlling the spread could be closing.
Former US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said insider this week that the virus could become endemic if not treated soon.
“We are now on the cusp of this becoming an endemic virus and this is now becoming something persistent that we need to continue to deal with,” he said.
The US response to monkeypox
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said US demand for monkeypox vaccines is outstripping the nation’s supply and described the situation as “frustrating”.
“I would like to acknowledge that the demand for vaccines from jurisdictions is currently greater than our currently available supply and we know this is frustrating,” Ms Walensky said said during a recent media briefing. “We expect an increase in cases in the coming weeks.”
Department of Health and Human Services officials said it had distributed 156,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine and distributed another 131,000 doses last week.
Last week, New York City’s monkeypox vaccine deadline It reportedly crashed within minutes to go live. All available vaccination appointments were booked on the same day it was launched.
“Due to overwhelming traffic, as soon as appointments went live this afternoon, the website returned error messages for many people unable to make appointments,” the city said said in a tweet.
The city announced that too inform local residents when more shots became available.
As the current spate of US infections is disproportionately affecting the gay community, the White House has teamed up with the LGBT+ advocacy group GLAAD for a briefing on monkeypox. They hope to spread mitigation messages in the community through the use of social media influencers.
Is it time to worry?
dr Kathryn H. Jacobsen, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of Richmond, shared her findings in a Voices piece at The Independent.
“While the monkeypox situation is certainly newsworthy, it did not clearly meet both requirements for pandemic status as of mid-July 2022,” she writes. “More importantly, the current evidence suggests that even if the virus spreads and becomes a pandemic, monkeypox is very unlikely to become a global public health disaster.”
She warned that monkeypox would not explode into a full-blown pandemic similar to Covid-19 because it spreads differently and is far less deadly.
“Why? First, the monkeypox virus is much less contagious than the circulating strains of the coronavirus. Second, monkeypox is less deadly than Covid-19 cases, which is lower than the percentage of unvaccinated people who die after contracting Covid-19,” she writes. “And third, if problems with limited supplies can be addressed, existing vaccines will be able to help slow the spread of monkeypox in high-risk populations.”
She eventually concluded that “even if monkeypox is declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, it will not evolve into a devastating pandemic like Covid-19.”
