New York, California and Illinois declared states of emergency in response to the monkeypox outbreak and US President Joe Biden named a federal coordinator as the viral disease continues to spread across the country and around the world.
The emergency declaration is intended to boost vaccination efforts and stem the rise in new infections. accounts of three states The U.S. accounts for nearly half of the nearly 6,000 monkeypox infections and is home to the nation’s three largest cities.
“California is working to ensure that those most at risk for vaccines, treatments and outreach remain our focus,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement Monday.
The change in status means emergency medical service personnel can administer monkeypox shots, as recently enforced by the statutory authority to administer vaccines to pharmacists.
Biden names Robert Fenton from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as white House According to a statement, Monkeypox Response Coordinator. Along with his deputy Demetre Daskalakis, he will lead the administration’s efforts to tackle the current outbreak, including equitably increasing the availability of testing, vaccination and treatment.
Fenton is a regional administrator for FEMA in the American West, which has about 50 million people in her region. Daskalakis is director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of HIV Prevention. Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, said both are “proven, effective leaders” who will implement the US strategy “with the urgency that this outbreak warrants.”
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus designated the outbreak an international emergency last month, paving the way for global cooperation to stop the virus spreading to dozens of countries. The last time WHO made a similar announcement was in January 2020 during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak.
A cousin of the smallpox virus, monkeypox was mostly confined to developing countries for years, but has spread throughout Europe and the Americas in recent months. The pathogen typically causes flu-like symptoms, followed by a rash that often begins on the face and spreads to the abdomen. The illness can last from two weeks to a month, and in some cases can be fatal.
So far outbreaks of the virus have been concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those who have multiple sexual partners. The WHO believes that using mitigation strategies in populations already affected by outbreaks can help slow the spread of the virus.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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