Health officials ramp up efforts to quell monkeypox
As monkeypox cases rise across California, state officials are ramping up efforts to acquire vaccine doses and educate the public on the disease.
California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Tomás Aragón revealed Friday that the state has received 37,169 monkeypox vaccine doses from the federal government and that more than 25,000 of those had already been distributed to local public health departments. Aragón said he expects the federal government to send an additional 72,000 doses to California in the coming days and weeks.
As of Friday morning, the state had recorded 786 probable or confirmed cases of monkeypox — 66% of which were reported in Los Angeles or San Francisco. So far, 11 people have been hospitalized with an average hospital stay of two days, according to the state Public Health Department.
Of the reported cases, 98% have been detected in men and 97% have been reported
by those who identify as LGBTQ.
San Francisco on Thursday became the first local jurisdiction in California to declare a local health emergency due to the spread of monkeypox — a move
that aims not only to raise awareness but also allow city officials to mobilize resources and staffing to address the outbreak and seek reimbursement from the state or federal governments for its response.
Aragón said Friday that California was considering declaring a statewide public health emergency. In the meantime, he said, he believed public health officials across the state were in a good position to fight the outbreak before it takes a more alarming turn.
“We’re in a much better situation to be able to deal with monkeypox than we would have two years ago,” Aragón said, pointing to more direct lines of communication between the state and local public health departments and more established vaccine distribution mechanisms that developed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Though cases in California primarily have been reported among gay or bisexual men, Aragón emphasized that anyone could contract the disease if he or she come in close physical contact with someone who has been infected.
“We’re asking clinicians to test anyone for which they’re suspicious could have monkeypox so that we can determine if it moves beyond the current social group,” he said.
Unlike COVID-19, which is spread through airborne transmission, monkeypox is known to be spread through close, physical contact — either skin to skin or through the sharing of clothing, bedding and towels. It also can take anywhere from seven days to two weeks for someone to start showing symptoms of monkeypox after coming into contact with someone who has been infected.
Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco professor of medicine who specializes in infectious diseases, said Friday that cases undoubtedly will continue to rise for the next few weeks due to the shortage of vaccines, as well as difficulties detecting the disease in its early stages.
“One of the main issues is that we can’t always tell if someone is infected in the early stages because it may just look like a pimple or ingrown hair, or people may not show rash right away,” Chin-Hong said. “That’s why we’re going to rely on vaccinations. It takes a while for the disease to set in but you can start building up immunity within days.
“Time is really ticking before it spills over to the general public — or becomes endemic,” he added.