New Jersey expanded its efforts to prevent the spread of monkeypox this week. Cases of the once rare disease he more than tripled in 10 days to 109. Governor Phil Murphy has urged the federal government to ship more doses of the vaccine to better protect the population. .
A shipment of 2,800 doses of federally allocated monkeypox vaccine in New Jersey reached health centers in Jersey City, Newark, Asbury Park and Paramus this week. Two of them already have a waiting list for future doses, a health ministry spokesman said. Bergen New Bridge Medical Center will open the first appointments for eligible persons on Fridays at 7:30 am.
The state plans to administer 2,696 boosters this week, but the governor has requested a higher percentage of the country’s limited monkeypox vaccine supply. citing the state’s proximity to New York City, the epicenter of the current US outbreak. The spread of COVID from New York to New Jersey should have taught officials an important public health lesson, he said.
“Recent history shows that New Jersey is as much so is New York,” Murphy and state health commissioner Judi Persicily wrote in a letter to Federal Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “We do not believe that New Jersey has received its fair share of available vaccines.”
“All Americans should be aware of monkeypox,” Becerra said in a conference call with reporters on Thursday. “Monkeypox isn’t COVID, but it’s contagious. The government is doing everything it can to “stay ahead of the virus and end this epidemic.”
Of the 4,639 monkeypox cases in the United States during the current outbreak, which began in mid-May, no deaths have been reported, he said.
Monkeypox can strike anyone, but so far the majority of cases have occurred among men who have sex with men, said Capt. Jennifer Maxton of the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. said Thursday.The patients range in age from 17 to 76, and two of them are infected children. The woman makes up only 1% of the cases for which demographic data are known, she said.
A cure for the virus — tecovirimat, or TPOXX — is available from the federal government. New Jersey received her 1,240 bottles, 48 of which were shipped to sites statewide to meet her 26 requests from providers, said Nancy Kearney, a spokesperson for the state health department. said Mr.
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Vaccines developed to prevent smallpox are thought to be effective in preventing infection in people exposed to monkeypox and those at high risk.The JYNNEOS vaccine is given twice 28 days apart. inoculate.
So far, 338,000 doses have been distributed nationwide, with another 768,000 scheduled to be shipped on Friday, federal officials said.
With limited supplies, each state is responsible for determining how its quota is used, Becerra said.
If the outbreak spreads to the general population, “we are ready to expand this outside of at-risk communities,” said the head of the Federal Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response within Health and Human Services. said Dawn O’Connell.
An additional 5.5 million doses have been ordered from European manufacturers and will be available by next spring, she said. To do so, it needs Congressional funding.
“You never know what’s going to happen next. We need to be prepared,” O’Connell said.
In New Jersey, those currently eligible for vaccination are:
- Known contact with a person who has tested positive for orthopoxvirus (a family of viruses that includes smallpox and monkeypox) or monkeypox virus within the past 14 days.
- People who have attended an event known to have monkeypox within the past 14 days.
- People who are gay or bisexual, men who have sex with men (MSM), and/or are transgender, gender nonconforming or gender nonbinary, and have a history of multiple or anonymous sex partners within the past 14 days.
People with known exposure should visit their healthcare provider. Health care providers request vaccines from health departments. Those at higher risk, the latter two groups, should go to regional agencies where vaccines are available, Carney said.
In addition to bargains, monkeypox vaccination sites in New Jersey include the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation in Jersey City, the Prevention Resource Network, the programs of the Central Jersey Visiting Nurses Association in Asbury Park, and the North Jersey Community Research Initiative in Newark. increase.
The Department of Health said eligibility will expand as states receive more doses. Federal officials will “continue to adjust” allocation strategies according to usage and need, O’Connell said Thursday. Currently, federal officials do not know how many doses were actually used.
Bergen New Bridge received 300 doses of the vaccine on Wednesday afternoon and was ready to administer according to state health department guidelines between 7:30 am and 10:00 am on Friday. Appointments filled up quickly after the announcement that the vaccine was available on Thursday afternoon. By 5:15 pm, there were 85 reservations.
“These are for New Jersey residents,” said Deb Visconi, CEO of the medical center.
In New York City, supply fell far short of demand, causing the city’s health department website to crash twice. The city has reported 1,148 cases of the disease, which is likely an undercount. can receive
Visconi said patients must prove they meet eligibility criteria through an online appointment form. Immunizations will take place in an annex of the medical center that has been used throughout the pandemic to deliver COVID vaccines and will continue to deliver those vaccinations on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.
The main symptom of monkeypox is a blister-like rash with small pimples with bubbles on top. The main route of transmission is through skin-to-skin contact with lesions or through towels or bedding that come in contact with them. A person is contagious until the pustules crust and fall off and new skin forms.
Other common symptoms include fatigue, fever and swollen lymph nodes, said McQuiston, associate director of the CDC’s High Outcome Pathogens and Pathology Division. Symptoms usually develop 3 weeks after exposure.
The World Health Organization’s secretary-general on Saturday declared monkeypox a global public health emergency. The disease, which once endemic in a handful of countries in central Africa, has spread rapidly around the world this year, with 77 countries reporting him 20,638 cases as of Wednesday.