Texas surpasses 1,000 monkeypox cases

Texas, United States — Texas has reached more than 1,000 monkeypox cases — 1,119 — as of Friday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Of those cases, 450 have been reported in the Houston area.

Harris County Public Health and the Houston Department of Health are still doing what they can to stop the spread by working to get more doses of the vaccine.

On Wednesday, the city and county received a total of 10,000 additional doses of monkeypox vaccine. The shipment is not what health officials expected, but they hope it will help more than 5,000 people in our region.

RELATED: Houston, Harris County get 10K extra monkeypox vaccines

Health officials have warned that the virus does not discriminate.

“Remember from Covid, the virus doesn’t really care. It takes advantage of the opportunity to spread and will continue to do so,” said Dr. David Purse of the Houston Department of Health. “So, right now it’s men who have sex with a male community because that’s where it started. But we really need to try to stop the spread of the virus in our community.”

RELATED: Monkeypox: Track Houston Area, Local County, and Texas Case Numbers; Get answers to common questions

Right now, Houston-area health officials are trying to balance three things at once:

• Trying to prioritize those most at risk
• how much vaccine is in the area
• Demand

Health officials said they were able to meet demand at the time, but that could certainly change.

Here are answers to some commonly asked questions from the Centers for Disease Control.

Others who are eligible now include the following people in the latest Department of Texas State Health Service criteria:

• People with known or potential exposure to the monkeypox virus have a top priority for vaccination.

Lists for people 18 and older include:

• men who have sex with men and have had multiple or anonymous sexual partners within the past 21 days;
• Have a sexual partner who is showing signs of monkeypox, such as a rash or sores;
• Has been diagnosed with HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, or early syphilis within the past 12 months;
• are on HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis;
• Have a condition that can increase their risk for serious illness if they are infected with the monkeypox virus, such as HIV, atopic dermatitis, or eczema.

• The disease, which can cause a severe skin rash, appears to be largely spread through direct contact with the skin or saliva of an infected person.
• Monkeypox can be spread from person to person through direct contact with bodily fluids such as rash, scabs or saliva.
• It can also be transmitted through respiratory droplets with prolonged face-to-face contact.
• Pregnant women can transmit the virus to their fetus through the placenta.
• At this time, it is not known whether monkeypox can be spread through semen or vaginal fluids. However, the DSHS says that by far the majority of Texas cases involve men who have had sex with other men.

• fever
• Headache
• muscle aches
• swollen lymph nodes
• chills
• Exhaustion
• rash that looks like pimples or blisters; The rash often first appears on the face and/or inside the mouth and then on other parts of the body.

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