The Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention has increased the availability of monkeypox vaccines, evaluations, and protective clothing.
The CDC expects to release more than 750,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine from its strategic stockpile in the coming days, according to a panel of experts on the Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) call.
They also stated that by collaborating with commercial labs, the company has increased its testing capacity in the United States and simplified the prerequisites for administering the antiviral tecovirimat.
Jennifer McQuiston, DVM, MS, incident manager for the organization’s monkeypox response, said, “We must work together to educate and protect those at greatest risk, leading with education and not stigmatization. And we need you, our frontline health care providers and public health practitioners, who are critical to get the outbreak under control.”
Monkeypox, a close relative of smallpox, spreads through close physical contact and typically causes flu-like symptoms as well as pus-filled skin lesions. It is endemic to parts of West and Central Africa, but it has recently spread to at least 66 previously unknown countries. In these countries, 15,000 cases have been reported since April of this year, mostly among males who have had sex with other males.
The outbreak of monkeypox was deemed a global health emergency by the World Health Organization, the organization’s highest level of alert.
Since the spring, there have been exponentially more cases of monkeypox reported in the United States, with 3487 cases reported in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, according to Mara E. Negrón Sureda, PhD, DVM, MS, the CDC monkeypox Epidemiology Task Force Lead.
The average age of those infected is 35, and 98.4% of cases are thought to be the result of male-to-male sexual contact. Rashes are present in 99% of cases, malaise is present in 70%, fever is present in 64%, and lymphadenopathy is present in 63% of cases.
According to Christina Hutson, PhD, MS, Laboratory and Testing Task Force Lead, the CDC has increased testing capacity by enlisting five commercial laboratories to process 70,000 assessments in addition to the ten thousand assessments the US Laboratory Response Network (LRN) is processing each week.
She underlined, “We have had significant success in expanding diagnostic testing for monkeypox to these commercial laboratories that have national reach and can perform tests ordered from anywhere in the country.”