Public Health Gives Monkeypox Update – Calexico Chronicle – Calexico Chronicle
EL CENTRO — A concerted effort by stakeholders on both sides of the border is underway to help inform residents of the presence of monkeypox and the resources available to address it.
Imperial County Public Health Director Janette Angulo told the county Board of Supervisors that local public health officials have been speaking with their counterparts in Mexicali, as well as other stakeholders to share information and coordinate efforts.
Angulo’s disclosure during the board’s meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16 came in response to questions by Raul Ureña, a Calexico council member who identifies as transgender.
Ureña had asked Angulo about whether Valley residents were at any heightened risk of contracting monkeypox because of the availability of legalized sex work in Mexicali.
And while Angulo said she couldn’t offer a definitive answer to Ureña’s question, she did state that local public health officials were in discussions with various stakeholders on both sides of the border that provide services to high-risk populations.
“We are definitely talking about the situation,” Angulo said. “And we are partnering so that again, we can provide the best service possible.”
Ureña said he was grateful to hear local officials were pursuing such a binational response, and especially one that targeted the LGBTQ community, which has historically been stigmatized.
“We have just not had a big time talking about sexual health,” Ureña said. “And we need to break through that stigma.”
Locally, the number of monkeypox cases reported in the county has remained at two over the past week, the county Public Health Department reported.
The first case was reported Aug. 2, while the second was reported on Aug. 5, Public Health previously stated. The county’s allotment of vaccine also remained at 140, Director Angulo told the board during its meeting.
In response to a question by Ureña, Angulo further confirmed that statewide, the majority of all monkeypox cases have been contracted by gay or bisexual persons.
In California, gay or bisexual persons account for about 94 percent of all cases, with nearly 98 percent of those being among men.
About 1,400 of the state’s 2,356 cases were in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Both public health and LGBTQ advocates have stressed monkeypox is not a “gay disease” nor is it a sexually transmitted disease, but the close contact that arises from “high-risk” behaviors is contributing to the spread. CDPH defines high-risk behaviors as sexual contact, close contact from hugging, kissing and cuddling, and sharing items such as bedding, towels, and clothing.
Recently, the Imperial Valley LGBT Resource Center requested a presentation and discussion with Imperial County Health Officer, Dr. Stephen Munday, “to have a more open discussion,” center Chief Executive Officer Rosa Diaz said.
The virtual meeting occurred on Aug. 5, the same day Imperial County Public Health’s epidemiology department confirmed the Valley’s second case of monkeypox.
“Although we know that approximately 95 to 98 percent of people being infected in the US is between (men who have sex with men), we don’t want to stigmatize the virus as a gay disease,” Diaz told the Calexico Chronicle after her meeting with Dr. Munday. “We talked about our responsibility in making sure that we be responsible for our behavior(s). Some of the questions that were asked were about how it is transmitted, what are the symptoms, and where can we find treatment.”
Diaz said she expected more of the gay community to attend the meeting, but “we did have a good number of people from other nonprofits that attended.”
“We will be collaborating with the health department to provide educational information about the virus,” Diaz said on Aug. 7. “Other than that, we will continue to bring it up at our support groups and post updates as they come.”
Vaccine in still in relatively short supply throughout the state, but Imperial County is a lot better off than it was prior to Aug. 4, when local doses went from 40 to 140.
Most of the vaccine — 85 doses — has gone to innercare (formerly Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo), which has multiple sites throughout the Valley and “houses programs that serve the higher-risk groups,” Imperial County Public Health Public Information Officer Maria Peinado said in an email.
El Centro Regional Medical Center and Pioneers Memorial Hospital in Brawley each received 25 doses, and five doses stayed with Public Health, according to Peinado.
As of the morning of Aug. 10, seven doses of vaccine had been administered in Imperial County.
Locally, Public Health’s epidemiology team is doing disease surveillance, case investigation, tracing isolation, notifications and advisories, Director Angulo told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Aug. 16.
However, the department’s local laboratory is not set up to do testing and has been using the services of a private laboratory, she said. It is also working with the state to be able to secure some antiviral therapeutics, Angulo said.
The department’s website also has information about monkeypox symptoms, transmission, prevention, testing and vaccination.
See also
“Individuals are encouraged to work with their health care provider and the health care provider will guide them through this process,” Angulo said. “And if they’re eligible for vaccination, then they can refer out to one of these entities that have the vaccine.”
Fears that escalating cases of monkeypox could stretch thin national supplies of the two-shot Jynneos vaccine, federal officials on Aug. 9, announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of an emergency-use authorization that changes the way the vaccine is dosed, administering one-fifth the normal amount. With that comes a priority to get more vaccine to Los Angeles and San Francisco counties, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“In San Francisco, honestly, it’s a little bit like ‘The Hunger Games’ when it comes to accessing vaccination,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said in the Times. “It is heartbreaking.”
Imperial County’s Peinado said the “Public Health Department is currently waiting for guidance from the CDC and CDPH” on the new dosing protocol.
Meanwhile, much is being written about the gay community’s role in the spread of the virus, a scenario not all that different than the feelings of discrimination that arose out of the AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s.
But the role cannot be denied, as multiple advocates and public health officials acknowledge.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases expert with the University of California, San Francisco, told the LA Times on Wednesday that the steep rise in cases in Los Angeles and San Francisco counties appears to coincide at least in part with Pride celebrations, “specifically in gay saunas and at pool parties where there is intimate skin-to-skin contact,” the Times attributed to Chin-Hong.
Pride events in both counties were in mid- to late June, and the incubation period for monkeypox is three to 17 days, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s difficult to say whether any of Imperial County’s monkeypox cases will be attributed to the gay and bisexual community; county Public Health’s Peinado said the Valley is too small to provide demographics the same way CDPH does, and to do so would threaten the privacy of the individuals affected.
Yet the effect on the Imperial Valley LGBTQ community has been of concern for center CEO Diaz, who requested the meeting with Dr. Munday just as the first case was confirmed.
“This is why we as an LGBT center have to provide the message to our consumers who are of the LGBT community who may be looking to hook up online or at bars, or other means,” Diaz told the Calexico Chronicle. “We, as trusted messengers, will remind them that because they are at high risk and practice high-risk behaviors, they need to be careful. Treatment and vaccines are available but best practices are of the essence.”
Marcie Landeros contributed information to this report.
(This story from Aug. 11 was updated with additional information on Wednesday, Aug. 17.)