Experts fear it may be too late to prevent the disease from becoming endemic in the United States
The US states of California and Illinois both declared states of emergency on Monday due to rising monkeypox infections, as several countries report their first virus-related deaths.
According to statistics from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 5,800 possible or confirmed cases have been reported in the United States so far. More than 800 were reported Tuesday in California alone, with Illinois contributing another 500.
The US federal government has so far resisted declaring a national public health emergency, even following the World Health Organization declared the global outbreak of monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern.
According to California’s statement on Tuesday, emergency medical services will be permitted to administer federally approved monkeypox vaccines to a broader population of residents.
“California is working urgently at all levels of government to slow the spread of monkeypox, leveraging our robust testing, contact tracing and strengthened community partnerships during the pandemic to ensure those most at risk are our priority for vaccines, treatment and awareness. said Governor Gavin Newsom in an official proclamation.
According to the CDC, monkeypox is a smallpox virus, a relative of the now eradicated smallpox, which causes blister-like lesions on the skin and can cause flu-like symptoms such as headache, fever and respiratory symptoms. .
The illness usually lasts between two and four weeks and can range from mild to severe, even fatal. Several countries recently reported their first monkeypox-related deaths, including India and Spain.
The disease spreads from infected individuals through close skin-to-skin contact and bodily fluids, and can also spread from animals to humans. Gay and bisexual men have been stigmatized due to disproportionate infection rates – but health officials around the world have stressed the disease can affect anyone and is not a sexually transmitted disease.
The United States is facing vaccine shortages in light of what experts fear might become an endemic disease. In late July, the MIT Technology Review discovered monkeypox in sewage from San Francisco Bay in California, indicating that the infection is more widespread in the community than officially reported. Other metropolitan areas across the country achieved similar results.
According to the WHO, the first human case of monkeypox was diagnosed in a child in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970. It is endemic in West and Central African countries, which form two different clades of the virus. The West African clade is thought to cause less severe disease than others endemic to the Congo Basin.
