A nurse prepares a monkeypox vaccine in Salt Lake City, United States. Photo: AP
The number of recorded cases of monkeypox in New York State is nearly one third of the infections recorded in the United States. The State Department of Health warns on its website that the number of cases could being “much older” than the officer. And getting the vaccine is a real challenge.
More than a quarter of the 5,000 monkeypox cases in the United States have been reported in New York, making the Big Apple the epicenter of this outbreak which is mainly, at least for now, affects men having sex with other men.
“The circle closes”
“Actually yes, I am concerned about the monkeypox virus because as a member of the New York LGBT community, we are starting to see people we know or friends of friends who have tested positive,” explains Mateo Sancho Cardiel, a teacher. Spanish university.
“The feeling that it is approaching and that the circle is closing is there. There are people who tell you they have horrible reactions and terrible pain. The cases of people who went through a very bad time, which was very painful, well, it’s scary, ”he continues.
“I saw long lines”
There is a vaccine to protect yourself, but getting it was extremely difficult. Blair Russell, an art consultant, is one of the lucky ones who managed to give it to him, but it has been through contacts and in another state.
There is a vaccine to protect yourself, but getting it was extremely difficult. Photo: AP
“I got it in Fort Lauderdale, you don’t have it in New York. I have friends here in New York who went to Montreal or Florida, but here in New York last month I saw long lines, I saw the lottery to make an appointment, I saw people who pay people to reserve him a place in line, ”he says.
A problem limited to LGBT people?
The situation, he adds, is worrying, because the general public believes that this is a problem exclusive to gays.
A nurse prepares a vaccine at the Monkeypox Vaccination Center in Valhalla, New York. Photo: Reuters
For Russell, it’s a shortsighted and dangerous view: “It’s sad because obviously it’s a segment and people say ‘it only affects LGBT people and who cares what happens to them.’ But the problem is that, like other diseases that started in subsections, then spread to the rest of the population very fast”.
Sanitary emergency
A week ago, the WHO declared the international emergency from the current monkeypox epidemic, after approximately 17,000 cases – five of them fatal – were reported in 74 countriesmany of them in Europe, where the disease was not endemic.
The decision was announced at a press conference by the WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesustwo days later an emergency committee with experts on this disease met to analyze the possible declaration, which will force the national health networks to increase their preventive measures.
“Release the vaccine,” reads a protest poster in San Francisco. Photo: AP
This committee had chosen not to declare the emergency at a first meeting held in June when the cases were 3,000.
Also on this occasion, according to Tedros, there was not a complete consensus among the experts, but the director general decided to declare the emergency given the high and growing number of cases in various regions of the entire planet.
Until now, Argentina records 13 infected, of which 12 had a travel history prior to the onset of symptoms.
With RFI information
Source: Clarin
