The government of President Joe Biden recognizes the increase in cases of monkeypox in the United States, for which it implemented a new health strategy, which includes the expansion of vaccines.
Specialized doctors of the Biden Administration indicated that, although there are more and more cases of this disease in the country, its contagion is “less transmissible” than respiratory diseases, such as COVID-19.
So far, the US registers more than 300 cases of monkeypox in 26 states and the city of DC, being California (296), New York (72) , Illinois (46), Florida (35), Massachusetts (15) and the city of Washington (21), the ones that face the most infections, according to data from the Centers for Control (CDC).
“Monkeypox is a virus that is generally transmitted through close or intimate contact, with symptoms that include rash and fever”, recalled the experts in a conference with journalists, where it was recalled that the Directorate of the National Security Council on Global Health Security and Biodefense, more commonly known as the White House Pandemic Office, will be in charge of coordinating the actions.
It should be remembered that this office had been disappeared by former President Donald Trump.
The efforts of the Biden Administration are led by Dr. Ashish Jha, who is also coordinator of the Action of Response to COVID-19 of the White House, as well as Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of CDC, and David Boucher, director of Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response for the Department of Health (HHS), among others.
“The virus is spreading in the United States and around the world, requiring a response of federal, state, local and international governments and communities”, it was indicated.
The Biden Administration, the experts added, planned the special response after the first case in the country, which occurred on 18 May.
The CDC had even issued advice on how to have sex, because it was the easiest way to get infected.
Increased Vaccines
The Biden Administration announced the first phase of its national monkeypox vaccination strategy to immediately address the spread of the virus by providing vaccines throughout the country to people at high risk.
“This phase of the strategy aims to quickly implement vaccines in the most affected communities and mitigate the spread of the disease”, it was indicated.
The effort is equal with the expansion and decentralization of tests, as well as the training of providers.
“The United States has effective vaccines and treatments that can be used against monkeypox. “To date, HHS has received requests from 35 states and jurisdictions, deploying more than 9,000 doses of vaccines and 300 cycles of antiviral treatments against smallpox”.
The new effort will allow the sending of 296,000 dose over the next few weeks, 56 ,000 of which will be assigned “immediately”, but in the next months, 1.6 million additional doses will be available.
The importance of testing
The Administration Biden recalled the importance of tests to serve patients on time, for which he boasted of the actions of the FDA and the CDC to expand the capacity of analysis in 72 sites in 48 states.
“The tests are mainly in state public health laboratories, with additional capacity to perform almost 10,000 tests per week throughout the country ”, he recalled. “Last week, CDC began shipping tests to five commercial lab companies.”
CDC has worked to increase public health testing capacity by more than 50% from the beginning of the outbreak, increasing the capacity of 6,10 weekly tests to 10,000.
Also A protocol was implemented so that any laboratory can carry out this test.
“Since the start of the monkeypox outbreak, the number of days from the average onset of symptoms to testing has decreased by approximately one 35%, which allows patients to more quickly learn their diagnosis, access care and prevent the spread”, defended the Government.
The Biden Administration has direct contact with leaders of organizations and activists of the LGBTQI+ community whose members have been among the most affected.
“The Administration is also creating a critical feedback loop: learn from the experiences of those most at risk and respond based on their knowledge and needs”, it was delimited
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The efforts of the Biden Administration are also focused abroad, due to the increase in tourism both from Americans to other countries , as tourists in the US