| |
The Future of Monkeypox- Cases in the
US Are Falling. There's No One Reason Why
|
| |
| |
The explosive US monkeypox epidemic, now four months old, appears to be slowing down-although new cases, and serious complications, are still arising. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that two men in Colorado and Washington, DC, developed grave neurological problems that left them using walkers. Health authorities in California say a man there died as a result of monkeypox infection, and Texas experts are evaluating the death of a man in that state as well.
With 22,774 cases, the US has racked up almost two-fifths of the world's total. Nevertheless, a recent CDC assessment says the epidemic's "rate of growth is slowing." In July, it took only eight days for the US case count to double; it takes approximately 25 days for the same to happen now. That the epidemic may be slowing is unquestionably good news. But there's a catch: No one is quite sure why.
And in a White House briefing this morning, federal health officials acknowledged those departments are strapped for cash to create their campaigns, in some cases moving money from HIV and STD programs to pay for vaccination workers and push out education. "Our local jurisdictions have received no resources specific for monkeypox," CDC director Rochelle Walensky said. "It speaks to the need for supplemental funds."
From here, a few different things could happen. People could accept the vaccine and either abstain from sex and skin-to-skin contact or practice safe sex rigorously, cases continue to decline, and the virus runs out of hosts. In another, vaccination doesn't reach everyone who needs it or isn't efficacious enough to protect them, and people miss sex and skin contact enough to let their protective behaviors slip. Then case numbers rise again as monkeypox settles in to being a sex-adjacent infection, as common-and potentially as dangerous-as gonorrhea or syphilis can be.
https://www.wired.com/story/monkeypox-cases-falling-united-states/
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
