Native public well being and elected officers at this time introduced the declaration of a neighborhood well being emergency to answer monkeypox within the San Diego area.
The motion doesn’t point out that San Diegans are at elevated danger of contracting the virus, however is meant to reassure the general public that native well being authorities are working proactively to remain forward of any challenges which will come up. The native well being emergency have to be ratified inside 7 days by the County Board of Supervisors, after which ratified once more each 30 days as wanted.
“Our county has taken monkeypox very significantly from the start and people efforts will proceed,” stated Nathan Fletcher, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors, who was joined by different elected officers in asserting the assertion. “Right this moment, the county is declaring a neighborhood well being emergency for monkeypox to align our efforts with the strategy taken by the state of California. This will even permit us to strengthen our county’s vaccination, prevention, schooling and therapy initiatives.”
The emergency declaration empowers the County to:
- reply extra successfully to monkeypox
- discover and use state assets for vaccine administration
- Leverage public well being infrastructure associated to testing, contact tracing, and case investigation, in addition to group outreach and engagement
- guarantee county well being professionals and different native stakeholders have all the required instruments at their disposal
“All of those methods have been developed and strengthened through the response to COVID-19,” stated Wilma Wooten, MD, MPH, county public well being officer. “To stop the unfold of monkeypox an infection all through the group, the bottom line is prevention, and this consists of vaccinations.”
The County has already taken a number of steps to handle this rising risk. It has been working with the lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and queer group to develop messages, academic supplies, and administer the restricted variety of vaccines coming to the world. The County has additionally been reaching out to different native jurisdictions and group organizations.
The County has held a discussion board, mass vaccination clinics, and plenty of different outreach efforts. So far, three,987 doses of monkeypox vaccine have been obtained in San Diego County.
As of August 1, a complete of 46 confirmed and possible instances have been reported. Just one affected person required hospitalization and there have been no deaths. All instances have been male, and their ages ranged between 27 and 58 years. The area’s case depend will now be up to date every day, Monday by means of Friday.
Two vaccination occasions have already taken place, by which greater than 1,400 monkeypox vaccines have been administered over 4 days. The county has additionally made doses of the vaccine obtainable to native well being care suppliers. Some doses of monkeypox vaccine are additionally obtainable at County Public Well being Facilities and STD clinics.
The County has additionally distributed 110 therapy programs of Tecovirimat, a drug used to deal with monkeypox, to native healthcare organizations and County clinics.
Given the monkeypox vaccine scarcity and following steering from the California Division of Public Well being, the County is specializing in delivering the primary doses to as many high-risk people as potential. For the present outbreak, that features males who’ve intercourse with a number of male companions and shut contacts of reported instances. The county’s strategy is consistent with methods in different massive jurisdictions with monkeypox outbreaks, together with New York Metropolis and San Francisco.
The state allocates vaccines to counties based mostly on the variety of instances of monkeypox, in addition to the variety of instances of early syphilis in males reported in a area.
The county additionally put in a textual content message alert system to ship San Diegans real-time details about monkeypox within the area. To enroll to obtain the messages, textual content COSD MONKEYPOX to 468-311. A social media messaging and schooling marketing campaign is underway to boost consciousness of monkeypox.
For extra data on monkeypox, easy methods to forestall it, who ought to get vaccinated, go to the county’s monkeypox webpage. web site or name 2-1-1.
