The United States is seeing the monkeypox virus surging. At the beginning of the week, the number of known cases in the United States was 209. But as of the end of Pride Month, June 30, the Centers for Disease Control reported 396 cases in 30 states, or 60% of all states reporting at least one case. Puerto Rico, a territory, also has a documented case.
To date, no known cases of monkeypox have been identified in Alaska, but the virus is being spread primary in the sexually active community of men having sex with other men and it appears that the virus will make its way north eventually. It has been diagnosed in Hawaii.
The CDC said it will make vaccine available to men who have sex with men who have had multiple recent partners. When vaccine supplies are better, the advice may change, said Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC.
“As soon as we have more vaccines available, we will of course continue to expand from a post-exposure prophylaxis strategy ideally to a pre-exposure prophylaxis strategy,” Walensky said. “I do think it would be wise to address that expansion at a time when we have more vaccine so we can really follow where the outbreak is densest.”
Right now, the outbreak is spreading in California and New York, with Illinois and Florida also seeing double-digit cases. The “big three” Democratic stronghold states are California, New York and Illinois. The outbreak started in coastal states where Democrats are mainly in control and is working its way into the “flyover states” of the Midwest, as well as into the Bible Belt South.
In Europe, the case count has tripled. The head of the World Health Organization’s Europe division warned Friday that monkeypox cases in the region have tripled in two weeks. Europe and the United Kingdom are hot spots, but in known sex tourism centers such as Thailand, there have been no reported cases.
In the United States, the contagion has taken off at a greater rate than in Europe. Four weeks ago, there were 9 reported cases in seven states. Today’s count of 296 is an over 4,000% increase from what it was at the end of May.
Monkeypox is not as highly contagious as Covid-19 and a different kind of health response is called for. It is primarily spread through intimate contact with an infected person or animal, or to a lesser degree may be spread through contaminated surfaces or respiratory droplets. The current outbreak of 5,323 cases in 52 countries is still mainly in populations of men who have sex with men.
The latest from the CDC is at this link.
