The states of California and Illinois, in the United States, declared a state of emergency on Monday due to the increase in cases of monkeypox, thus joining New York, which already did the same last Friday.
(Also read: New York declared a state of emergency due to monkeypox)
It so happens that the three states that have declared the emergency are those that are home to the three largest cities in the US: New York (in the state that bears the same name), Los Angeles (California) and Chicago (Illinois). ).
(It may interest you: Peru records the first death of a person infected with monkeypox)The emergency declaration authorizes state agencies to allocate funds and resources to help localities fight this disease.
The US has detected some 6,000 cases of monkeypox in recent months, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
In late July, the CDC first detected two cases of monkeypox in children. Health officials indicated that both cases are related and that it is most likely that the children were infected at home by transmission from a family member.
Spread
Monkeypox does not spread easily between humans: infection occurs through close contact with infected skin, body fluids, or respiratory droplets from an infected person with whom you have sexual intercourse.
It is a different virus from smallpox and it is being transmitted outside its usual endemic area (Central and West Africa), so it is necessary to exercise strict epidemiological control over it.
A person is considered contagious from the onset of the enanthema – oral mucosal lesions – until the lesions heal and a new layer of skin forms.
For this reason, infected people should remain isolated until all skin lesions have healed, and especially avoid close contact with immunosuppressed people.
The incubation period can range from 5 to 21 days, and the clinical picture usually begins with a combination of symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches, characteristic skin lesions, and swollen glands.
Regarding its severity, epidemiologists point out that the cases of the current outbreak are milder than those described in West Africa, and that they are hardly generating hospital admissions. However, remember, lesions on the skin and mucous membranes are very annoying.
response group
The United States government created a response group to the spread of monkeypox in the country, and appointed experts in emergencies and epidemiology to deal with this disease.
The White House announced in a statement the appointment, by the president, Joe Biden, of the experts who will lead this group.
The coordinator will be Robert Fenton, currently responsible for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA, in English) in the west of the country and one of the “most experienced leaders in emergency management in the country”.
The team’s deputy leader will be Dr. Demetre Dasklalakis, a public health expert and currently director of the division for HIV prevention at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Dasklalakis is also an expert in the treatment of diseases that affect the LGTBI + community and has supervised the fight against infectious diseases in the New York Department of Health on several occasions.
“We look forward to working with Bob Fenton and Demetre Dasklalakis to end the monkeypox outbreak in the United States,” the country’s health secretary, Xavier Becerra, said in the statement, highlighting their experience in handling this responsibility.
The Government has launched a strategy to combat this virus and has provided 1.1 million doses of the vaccine to states and cities to control its spread.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from Efe
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