Tarrant County confirms 1st case; White House rolls out vaccines

TAMMYE NASH | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com and
CARIS WHITE | Washington Blade
Courtesy of National LGBT Media Association

Officials with Tarrant County this week confirmed the first known case of monkeypox in the county. But they did not release any details regarding the patient, including age or gender. Officials said the epidemiology division is investigating and is gathering details on the case but added that the general public is not considered to be at risk.

As of Tuesday, July 12, officials with Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 14 cases of the viral infection here. The first four cases to be confirmed were Dallas County residents who all self-identified as men who have sex with men and who had recently traveled outside the country.

At least one man visiting from out of state to attend the Daddyland Festival circuit party and related events over the July 4 weekend was been confirmed to have monkeypox. Since then, DCHHS has “received notification of an out-of-state MSM visitor with confirmed monkeypox who had multiple sexual encounters at Club Dallas’s sauna between June 22 and June 25, while the traveler was infectious.”

Monkeypox is rarely fatal and usually presents with flu-like symptoms and a rash.

Health departments in all but 11 U.S. states have reported at least one case of monkeypox, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In Texas, as of July 13, 39 cases had been reported, with 15 of those, as we noted, reported in DFW. New York has the most reported cases with 158, followed by California with 148 and Illinois with 121. Florida and the District of Columbia have also reported significant numbers of cases, with 72 and 69 respectively. Georgia (48), and Massachusetts (44) have reported more cases than Texas.

According to the CDC, as of July 11, there have been 9,647 cases of monkeypox reported globally in this current outbreak. Of those cases, 9,424 are in countries that have not historically reported monkeypox cases.

Health officials in Dallas County have stressed that while many of the cases have been reported in men who have sex with men, monkeypox is not a “gay” disease, nor or men who have sex with men more likely, over all, to contract the virus than any one else. But because the virus is spread through close contact (not sexual contact) with an infected person or even with clothes they may have worn, it tends to spread among familial and social circles.

Vaccines
Amid the rising monkeypox infection numbers, the White House announced July 7 that it would make 144,000 additional doses of the JYNNEOS monkeypox vaccine available to the states. Doses were set to start shipping Monday, June 11.

“We are using every tool we have to increase and accelerate JYNNEOS vaccine availability in jurisdictions that need them the most,” Strategic National Stockpile Director Steve Adams said in the White House statement. “In less than 10 days, we’ve made available 200,000 JYNNEOS vaccine doses in communities where transmission has been the highest and with high-risk populations.”

However, the monkeypox vaccination rollout has had its share of hiccups. California’s state Sen. Scott Weiner and state Assemblymember Matt Haney on July 8 issued a press release criticizing the federal government’s vaccination effort and calling for more doses.

“We have very little time to contain this outbreak and prevent it from getting out of control and potentially becoming endemic,” the press release read. “The federal government needs to dramatically increase the supply of the vaccine and distribute it to impacted local communities as quickly as possible. We have no time to spare. It’s completely unacceptable that the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and other community clinics are receiving so few doses. We need a sufficient quantity of vaccines so that everyone who is at risk has access.”

Human Rights Campaign Senior Vice President of Programs, Research and Training Jay Brown on July 8 in a statement called for an equitable vaccine rollout that prioritizes at-risk communities while avoiding past mistakes.

“Public health and other government officials must act quickly to ramp up testing capacity and vaccine distribution. They also need to be intentional with vaccine distribution and testing, prioritizing how to reach Black and brown gay and bi men and transgender women, especially those individuals living with HIV,” Brown’s statement read. “We’ve seen historical and systemic discrimination when it comes to delivering effective prevention and treatment to these members of our community.

As we have learned many times, a public health response that does not center equitable care and treatment is a failed response.” n