The government of United States said on Thursday national health emergency for the hatching of monkeypox that lives the country, in which thousands of infections have already been recorded although, for the moment, no deaths.
“We are ready to take our response to the next level,” explained this Thursday the American Secretary of Health, Xavier Becerra, during a call with journalists.
The declaration will allow national agencies to access emergency funds and will facilitate the management of vaccines and treatments against the disease.
It will also promote awareness and information efforts that authorities say are key to containing the infections, which are rising rapidly in the country.
“We encourage all Americans to take monkeypox seriously and take responsibility to help us deal with this virus”added the health secretary.
Earlier this week, the White House announced the creation of a task force to deal with the spread of monkeypox, after it was criticized for being slow to buy vaccines and treatments.
Indeed, the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Robert Califf, announced that his office has identified a possible solution to make up for the lack of vaccines in sufficient quantity, while the authorities obtain new doses.
Said solution would consist in administering intradermally one-fifth of the dose contained in a vial of vaccine.
This would allow health workers use one vial to administer five doses “without compromising its effectiveness and safety,” Califf said.
More than a million vaccines
Last week, health authorities announced that more than a million vaccines against the disease would be made available to states in the coming daysof which 600,000 have already been delivered, Becerra announced today.
Additionally, they expect to receive an additional 150,000 doses in September and additional vaccines in October and November.
The country currently records more than 6,500 monkeypox infectionsa figure well above the 4,600 recorded last week.
Declaring a national emergency will also require states to share health information about monkeypox with federal authorities, which will speed up the response to the emergency, explained the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky.
The World Health Organization (WHO) already declared an international health emergency due to the epidemic two weeks ago, after more than 16,000 cases were detected in 75 countries, many of them European, and several deaths.
Population most at risk
Walensky explained that the poblaciones de mayor riesgo y main objectivo de la campaña de vacunación son, por un lado, los hombres que maintaines sexual relations con otros hombres y que tienen el virus del HIV y, por otro, los varones con mayor riesgo de contraer AIDS.
“Joining these two populations, We estimate that there are between 1.6 and 1.7 billion people most at risk of monkeypox right now.” he claimed.
To date, the vast majority of cases detected in the United States, as well as other countries, occur in men who have had sex with men, although the disease can be transmitted to anyone.
US health authorities have warned that monkeypox infections are likely to increase in the coming days, so it is important that people are alert and that health centers know they have adequate supplies, both of vaccines and treatments, to contain the epidemic. .