According to The Washington Post’s rolling seven-day average, new cases of monkeypox in the US have dropped by nearly 25 percent over the past two weeks, from 444 cases a day on August 10 to 337 on August 24. Nearly 17,000 Americans have been diagnosed with monkeypox since the virus emerged in mid-May.
Globally, 21 percent decline in new cases compared to last week, The World Health Organization reported on Thursday.
Even as public health experts applauded the slowdown in new infections, they cautioned that the virus was posing a risk – especially outside of US urban centers and in developing countries, limited vaccine shortages. Between surveillance and inadequate testing – and can spread rapidly. gay and bisexual communities. Epidemiologists and health officials also report ongoing challenges with the White House’s new vaccine strategy to increase the number of doses available.
“There are signs that the outbreak is slowing in Europe, where a combination of effective public health measures, behavior changes and vaccination are helping to prevent transmission,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday. But he warned that new cases continued to rise in places like Latin America, where there is less awareness of the virus and limited access to vaccines.
Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California at Los Angeles who has studied monkeypox outbreaks, said a drop in cases is expected following increased awareness and a push for vaccination. “Whether it’s going to last or not, we don’t know yet,” she said. “It is too early to declare any kind of victory.”
Biden administration officials on Friday saw the “downward trend” of monkeypox cases in major US cities as a positive sign, but brushed off questions about whether the national outbreak was peaking.
“I want to be cautiously optimistic,” said Rochelle Valensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledging that more work needs to be done to contain the virus. “Week by week, our numbers are still rising. Is, [but] The rate of growth is low… and things are not even across the country.”
For example, new virus cases in some areas are surpassing urban centres. Monkeypox cases in Georgia climbed 66 percent in the two-week period between August 10 and 24, when cases in New York City, the epicenter of the US outbreak, climbed just 41 percent, according to state and local health department data.
New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said his team expects the virus to be retreating, after having infected about 2,900 New Yorkers in the past three months. About 40 new cases per day were diagnosed in New York City last week, compared to more than 70 cases per day earlier this month.
“In recent days, we’ve seen cases begin to decline and transmission has slowed,” Vasson testified before the New York City Council on Wednesday, attributing increased vaccinations and changes in sexual behavior. “All of this is clearly taking hold and is having a positive impact in slowing this outbreak.” Officials in cities such as San Francisco and Chicago echoed similar messages this week.
CDC It was reported this week that gay men have modified risky sexual behavior because of the outbreak, citing an online survey that said nearly half of men who have had sex with men said they had committed one-time sexual encounters. as well as reduced sex with partners on dating apps. Or at sex venues. Experts say the US outbreak was fueled by a flurry of dance parties and casual sex during June’s Pride Month activities, and the CDC previously found that 94 percent of cases were linked to sexual or intimate contact.
“Behavioral change, along with vaccination, can help slow the spread and end monkeypox outbreaks,” a CDC spokesperson said. Kristen Nordlund said in a statement. She noted that the US data contains information from multiple jurisdictions, “some of which continue to accelerate in the number of cases, and continued vigilance and action remain critical.”
Valensky and other officials said Friday they plan to promote vaccinations and messaging to LGTBQ communities at upcoming gatherings that could accelerate new clusters of infections, such as New Orleans’ Southern Fall Fest, in which Labor The day is expected to attract thousands of people over the weekend. They also said they are watching carefully as college students return to campuses, another potential driver of new cases.
State and local health officials are pressing the Biden administration to provide more support for the response, saying they need additional funding to raise public awareness. about virus, Hire additional staff to conduct testing and contact tracing, and invest more to strengthen health departments that have been fighting the coronavirus for two years.
Michael Fraser, chief executive of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers, shared a letter to the White House saying, “We are working to provide federal agencies with maximum flexibility to use COVID-19 supplemental funding to address this public health emergency.” Appreciate the efforts.” With The Washington Post. “However, given the scope and scale of the outbreak … it is clear that this short-term solution is not viable for the long-term.”
Fraser told The Post that an additional $500 million to $1 billion would be needed for the state and local monkeypox response for the next 12 months. He suggested that the Biden administration work out an emergency funding package with Congress or make more funding available through the CDC’s Infectious Disease Rapid Response Reserve Fund.
Experts continue to express concerns about the Biden administration’s vaccine strategy to expand the limited supply by dividing each single-use vial into five doses via a different injection method. The plan, swiftly finalized on 9 August, has been touted by some local officials as an innovative way to meet growing demand. But many state and local authorities are facing logistic problems in implementing it.
“I have now heard several reports from my state and local colleagues that it is too difficult to get five doses out of a vaccine vial,” Johns Hopkins epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers wrote in a statement. Post on his Substack page last week, criticizing the sudden strategy change. “Taken together, state and local health officials now have up to a third fewer doses for use in their communities compared with those prior to the step of intradermal administration.”
The chairman of the Senate health panel also urged the Department of Health and Human Services to close “dangerous” supply gaps in the monkeypox response as well as vaccines for future outbreaks.
Patty Murray (D-Wash) wrote Tuesday in a letter to Dawn O. “To address current, unacceptable shortages in vaccine supply, to establish widespread distribution and communication strategies, and to develop long-term procurement plans.” Should do more.” Connell, the assistant HHS secretary who oversees the vaccine stockpile.
The White House defended its vaccination strategy on Friday, saying that about 75 percent of jurisdictions nationwide have already adopted the new approach, and another 20 percent plan to do so. O’Connell said Friday, dividing each vial into five doses would allow the United States to “provide more than 3 million doses of vaccines … enough vaccines to reach almost entirely at-risk populations.” CDC officials have previously estimated that at least 3.2 million doses of the vaccine would be needed to cover gay and bisexual men, whom officials consider most at risk.
But Biden officials said they are open to adjusting their vaccination strategy as they collect more real-world data about the effectiveness of split doses.
“We’re really trying to move this thinking away from ‘how many vaccines can you get out of the vial’ to ‘how many weapons can you vaccinate’, because that’s going to give us a lot of information,” said Demetre Daskalakis. Said White House deputy coordinator for monkeypox response.
Administration officials have also said that despite weeks of complaints of limited vaccine availability, many local officials have yet to fully use up their vaccine supplies. As of Wednesday, only 11 of the 67 jurisdictions nationwide have confirmed their use of at least 85 percent of their vaccine supplies, according to a White House official, who called on them to discuss ongoing policy and internal talks. Spoke on condition of anonymity.
As cases escalated in June and July, the Biden administration reorganized its monkeypox strategy and deputed a new White House team to coordinate the federal response. in interviews, Biden officials shed light on his aftermath work to prevent potential outbreaks, such as a recent incident in which a day-care worker in Illinois tested positive for monkeypox, potentially exposing nearly 60 people, including several dozen children. The worker also acted as a home health aide to an elderly man.
The situation worried the White House, and Biden’s officials, fearing outbreaks among children, put out dozens of vaccines for those potentially exposed. Three weeks later, there have been no additional infections involving day care workers, Julie Pride, administrator of the Champagne-Urbana Public Health District, told The Post.
Lena H. Sun contributed to this report.
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)