Latest Updates on Monkeypox

Monkeypox Now Spreading in Mecklenburg County, Health Leaders Confirm

COVID Infection Rates on the Rise as Well

BY BLAKE DOUGLAS|CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Mecklenburg County health leaders said Aug. 1 that transmission of monkeypox is accelerating locally for the first time. Total infections for the virus is trending upward, said Mecklenburg County Health Director Dr. Raynard Washington. As of Aug. 1, the county confirmed 33 cases of monkeypox in Mecklenburg — up from 12 cases on July 20. That’s an increase of 175 percent. “The trend we’re seeing right now is for new cases to double every three to four days roughly,” Washington said.

The county Health Department has identified several incidents of community spread within Mecklenburg, according to Washington. Previously, contact tracing revealed all known infections originated from outside the county. Said Washington: “We expect case counts to continue to increase, at least in the short term.”

Increased monkeypox transmission coincided with the county announcing Friday that it was upgraded to high COVID community spread level by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite the heightened risk factor, Washington said he doesn’t expect the county to implement any mask mandates or other safety requirements.

Mecklenburg Getting More Monkeypox Vaccines

Mecklenburg will receive an additional 2,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine the first week of August. Washington said there are 1,800 patients on the vaccination wait list. Since the monkeypox vaccination is a two-shot treatment, county officials should be able to vaccinate around 1,000 people with the new shipment. Most confirmed infections have been with gay or bisexual men, Washington said, but reiterated that anyone in close contact with an infected person can be infected themselves. “The most common myth we’ve been hearing is that monkeypox is exclusive to gay or bisexual men, and that’s frankly not true,” he said. “While local infections have been mostly impacting those networks, that’s not the only group that’s possible to be impacted.”

To help proactively prevent infections, Washington said the department met with organizers of the upcoming Charlotte Pride festival several weeks ago to promote safety precautions. The county has also started campaigns on dating apps to raise awareness. Lessons learned during the COVID pandemic have helped the agency more quickly create a vaccination hotline and fine-tune contact tracing, Washington said. On July 20, county health officials reported 12 cases of monkeypox in the county, which accounted for over half of the state’s 21 total cases. As of July 29, the CDC reported 53 total cases in North Carolina, with Mecklenburg accounting for 33 of those. Mecklenburg County announced its first case on June 27, four days after the state Health Department reported North Carolina’s first monkeypox infection in Haywood County. Rowan County identified its first case on July 15. The CDC has reported 5,189 active monkeypox cases in the U.S. as of July 29.

No COVID Mask Enforcement Expected

Although omicron subvariant BA.5 has surged to become the most common COVID variant in North Carolina, Washington said he doesn’t expect any mask “enforcement measures” to be implemented by the county. He encouraged people to continually reassess their risk factor and mask, wash their hands and stay distanced when appropriate. Mecklenburg joined Rowan, Cabarrus and Gaston counties last week after being upgraded to high community spread by the CDC. Iredell and Lincoln counties also are on the list for high community spread, while Union County remains at medium, as are York, Chester and Lancaster counties in South Carolina.

Last week, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported the seven-day average of patients hospitalized with COVID was 1,111. Five deaths were reported. Variant BA.5 makes up 58 percent of all cases reported in the state, according to the state health department.

This article appears courtesy of our media partner The Charlotte Observer.::

Mecklenburg county officials should be able to vaccinate around 1,000 people with the new shipment.(Photo Credit: Adobe Stock)

The Monkeypox Outbreak in North Carolina Where It Stands and What You Should Know

BY JAMES BURRELL |CONTRIBUTING WRITER

North Carolina has reported more than 70 cases of the virus so far, according to data compiled by the state Department of Health and Human Services and nearly half of the cases have been in Mecklenburg County.

Monkeypox is a rare disease typically found in West and Central Africa. Before this year, most cases in the US have been associated with international travel. The disease often starts with flu-like symptoms and develops into a rash and skin lesions. Monkeypox is rarely fatal, although children and some people with compromised immune systems or underlying health conditions can develop more severe illness, according to the World Health Organization.

Men who have sex with other men have been the primary source of spreading and contracting the virus thus far, though monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease. Black men, in particular, have been disproportionately affected.

NCDHHS Secretary Kody Kinsley recently emphasized that anyone can get infected and addressed the stigma surrounding gay men. “This is not a gay disease,” he said at a virtual town hall meeting last Thursday cosponsored by the department and the nonprofit advocacy group Equality NC.

“Viruses don’t have a preference in different communities. And I see a health disparity… Right now, we have a disproportionate outcome where only certain groups are contracting it. We want to solve that and achieve a fair outcome of no one with monkeypox.”

Kinsley also said that the department wants to support those who are stigmatized and make them not feel afraid of who they are.

“We want to provide culturally competent care that doesn’t further stigmatize or create shame around normal parts of life,” he said. “I believe us tackling this head-on and being very transparent that there is no shame in being sick and there is no shame in sex is an important thing for us to do and folks to hear from us as well.”

Last week, NCDHHS further expanded eligibility for monkeypox vaccination. It has also been increasing awareness of the disease and the importance of getting tested.

“Our focus at the department and working with healthcare providers across the state is to make sure we can wrap the right prevention supports in the way of vaccines,” Kinsley said. “And other services, supports and access to testing around those

individuals to serve them.” The virtual town hall also featured Dr. Victoria Mobley, an NCDHHS medical consultant and adjunct professor of epidemiology at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Though the virus can spread by personal, NCDHHS Secretary Kody Kinsley: ‘This is not a gay disease.’ (Photo Credit: Facebook) skin-to-skin contact, Mobley provided insight into how it can also spread through touching objects or other body parts. “If you are known to have monkeypox or an unexplained rash, don’t share items between individuals,” Mobley said. “Frequent hand washing is important. We touch our skin a lot when we have rashes that itch or hurt. We touch lesions and we can transmit them to our fingers or other parts of the body.” Mobley also gave details about vaccination priorities. “The first group would be individuals who have had close to intimate skin-toskin contact with someone with monkeypox in the preceding 14 days,” she said. “If you get vaccinated within the four days after your exposure, the vaccine may prevent illness altogether from developing.”

Those with jobs that deal with skin-toskin contacts, such as massage therapists, are also at a heightened risk. At least one case was from this form of exposure.

Jynneos — the two-dose vaccine for monkeypox and smallpox — is currently being given statewide at several local health departments. Vaccination is free and based on the availability of the vaccine.

The CDC reports that individuals who received a smallpox vaccination decades ago enjoy a measure of protection against monkeypox, though the protection “may not necessarily be lifelong.” It notes that some people previously vaccinated against smallpox have contracted monkeypox in the current outbreak and during another outbreak in 2003. The U.S. stopped providing vaccinations against smallpox in 1972 when the disease was declared to have been eradicated.

As of Aug. 3, the CDC’s latest data shows there are 26,208 cases worldwide, with 6,616 of them in the United States. Most of them are in countries that have not historically reported monkeypox.

This week, California joined Illinois and New York as the latest state to declare a state of emergency due to the outbreak.

The World Health Organization also declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency on July 23. : :