But the recent death of a Los Angeles County resident, the first in the United States to be attributed to monkeypox, is a tragic reminder that the epidemic is ongoing and still carries risks.
“There is some hope that these cases will plateau. That is no consolation to anyone just because this outbreak is over,” said the executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors. David Harvey said at a briefing on Tuesday.
“We need to step up our efforts to respond to this outbreak, and we have so much unanswered data about this highly unusual outbreak of a known virus that has been around for decades. There are questions, clinical care questions, research questions, which themselves are very different in the United States.”
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the White House Assistant Monkeypox Response Coordinator, said last week.
But Harvey and other public health leaders said Tuesday that those on the front lines of the response, including local health departments, epidemiologists and sexually transmitted disease clinics, are working to ensure continued improvement. warned that it did not have sufficient resources for
Also, Dr. Caesar Arias, director of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and director of the Infectious Diseases Division at Houston Methodist Hospital, said there is a “very important immunocompromised population in the United States” and that if this outbreak continues, He said the risk would be higher. said in a briefing.
Other key concerns raised by US public health leaders at Tuesday’s briefing include unfair vaccination, access to testing and incomplete surveillance data.
They defended the Biden administration’s request to allocate about $4 billion to the monkeypox response in the upcoming government funding bill as one of the “four critical needs” along with support, telling Congress: We called for the immediate availability of substantial funds to deal with the outbreak. For Ukraine, Covid-19 response and natural disaster recovery.
The funding pressure comes a day before federal leaders, including Dr. Rochelle Wallensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are scheduled to speak before the Senate Health Committee. It is done. , Education, Work and Pensions on the Federal Response to the Monkeypox Outbreak.
The need for equitable protection
But for this hopeful trend to continue, continued effort and investment will be needed, especially in reaching out to underrepresented groups. , health leaders said.
“In many ways, the initial easy work has been completed. Now, local health departments are working to reach deeper into the hardest-to-reach communities with messages, education, vaccines, testing and treatment. We need to be more creative,” said Lori. Her Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said:
The White House monkeypox response team last month highlighted efforts to address these inequities and provide vaccinations at large events and festivals as one strategy to curb them.
“As the supply of vaccines grows, I think there are new opportunities for strategies to get vaccines to people, rather than having people find them.” Daskalakis said.
Last week, Daskarakis noted that infection rates are slowing in hardest-hit areas of the country, including New York, Texas, California and Illinois.
But local public health leaders stressed the need for a broader perspective.
“We can’t take our feet off the gas just because major cities have the means to take strong response measures and smaller rural communities have to fend for themselves,” Harvey said. .
