Sacramento County passes 50 monkeypox cases as California declares virus emergency
With Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday declaring a state of emergency in California for monkeypox, Sacramento County has now recorded more than 50 probable or confirmed cases of the virus among residents. Local and state health officials say they need more vaccines to help curb the growing outbreak.
The county health office in a Monday update reported the cumulative case count for monkeypox at 52, an increase of nine from Friday and up 18 from Wednesday.
Sacramento County announced California’s first monkeypox case May 24, in a resident who recently returned from international travel.
Subsequent infections in Sacramento have been found via contact tracing, in those returning from travel within the U.S. and from those showing up to health care providers with symptoms. A full breakdown of the exposure source of all 52 cases is not available.
At least 44 of the county’s 52 cases have come since July 12, following a nearly three-week break in cases from late June through mid-July.
The LGBT Community Center in midtown Sacramento’s Lavender Heights neighborhood has hosted a walk-in vaccine clinic each of the past two Mondays, giving out hundreds of first doses.
This week’s clinic was scheduled for noon to 4 p.m. but its supply was exhausted before 12:25 p.m., the community center wrote in a Facebook post.
The clinic is staffed by county health employees. Second doses are administered three weeks after the first.
Pucci’s Pharmacy in East Sacramento has also given monkeypox vaccines. An appointment is required via the pharmacy’s website.
The vaccine clinics are for those at high risk of infection. The local health office in early July announced it was “expanding preventative vaccine availability criteria to include MSM (men who have sex with men) and/or transgender (people) at high risk of exposure to monkeypox.”
San Francisco last week declared monkeypox a local public health emergency. The city as of Monday tallied 310 probable or confirmed cases. On a per-capita basis, that’s more than 10 times higher than Sacramento County’s total and nearly nine times more than Los Angeles County, which reported 400 total cases through Monday.
The California Department of Public Health on Friday released the first demographic data breakdown for 786 cases, the statewide total at the time. The numbers showed that about 98% of the state’s infection have been gay or bisexual men, most of them between ages 25 and 44.
Several cases have come in transgender men and women, three cases in cisgender women and two cases in non-binary Californians.
Vaccine supply remains very limited, and Newsom’s office in a Monday statement said the emergency declaration will help “coordinate a whole-of-government response to monkeypox, seek additional vaccines and lead outreach and education efforts on accessing vaccines and treatment.”
Sacramento County in an update Monday said it has been allocated and received 3,198 doses of the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine. Just over 800 doses have been administered by the local health office, with an additional 2,200 redistributed to medical providers in the area.
CDPH as of July 26 allocated about 37,000 doses of two-dose monkeypox vaccines to local health offices statewide, except Los Angeles County, which receives separate allocations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Los Angeles County as of last week had been allocated about 24,000 doses.
“California is working urgently across all levels of government to slow the spread of monkeypox, leveraging our robust testing, contact tracing and community partnerships strengthened during the pandemic to ensure that those most at risk are our focus for vaccines, treatment and outreach,” Newsom said in a statement accompanying Monday’s emergency declaration.
Latest monkeypox numbers for U.S. and world
The CDC, in a data tracker updated Monday, recorded 5,811 infections nationwide. It has been detected in every state except Montana and Wyoming.
New York had the most cases of any state at 1,390, per the CDC’s latest update, followed by California at 827, Illinois at 520, Florida at 442, Georgia at 430 and Texas at 397.
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington state, Virginia and Washington D.C. have all also detected more than 100 probable or confirmed monkeypox cases.
More than 23,500 cases had been detected globally across 80 countries, the CDC reported Monday.
How is monkeypox spread?
Spread of monkeypox is linked to prolonged, skin-to-skin exposure, according to experts.
Symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. The patient typically develops a rash, often beginning on the face and spreading to other parts of the body, normally about one to three days after fever.
The incubation period is typically one to two weeks but can range up to three weeks, and the illness typically lasts two to four weeks, according to a county news release.
Doctors and public health officials urge residents to practice safe sex. These practices may include abstaining from sex, practicing monogamy and using condoms during sex to limit exposure to the virus.
Who should get a vaccine?
The county recommends that men who have sex with men and transgender people who meet one or more of these factors should get vaccinated:
▪ Tested positive for a sexually transmitted infection in the last two months
▪ Had more than two sexual partners in the past three weeks
▪ Visited or worked at a commercial sex venue in the last three weeks
▪ Had anonymous sex — which are encounters when parties do not know each others’ identities — in the last three weeks
▪ Engaged in sex work in the past three weeks
Those who meet one or more of the above criteria are eligible for vaccination at Sacramento’s clinics.
This story was originally published August 2, 2022 at 8:10 AM.
