As monkeypox cases rise across California, state officials in California are ramping up their efforts to acquire vaccine doses and educate the public on the disease.
California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Tomas Aragon revealed Friday that the state has received 37,169 monkeypox vaccine doses from the federal government and that more than 25,000 of those had already been distributed to local public health departments. Aragon said he expects the federal government to send an additional 72,000 doses to California in the coming days and weeks.
As of Friday morning, the state had recorded 786 probable or confirmed cases of monkeypox — 66% of which were reported in Los Angeles or San Francisco. So far, 11 people have been hospitalized with an average hospital stay of two days, according to the state public health department.
Of the reported cases, 98% have been detected in men and 97% have been reported by those who identify as LGBTQ.
San Francisco on Thursday became the first local jurisdiction in California to declare a local health emergency because of the spread of monkeypox — a move that aims to not only raise awareness but also allow city officials to mobilize resources and staffing to address the outbreak and seek reimbursement from the state or federal governments for its response.
Aragon said Friday that California was considering declaring a statewide public health emergency. In the meantime, he said he believed public health officials across the state were in a good position to fight the outbreak before it takes a more alarming turn.
“We’re in a much better situation to be able to deal with monkeypox than we would have two years ago,” Aragon said, pointing to more direct lines of communication between the state and local public health departments and more established vaccine distribution mechanisms that developed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
While cases in California have primarily been reported among gay or bisexual men, Aragon emphasized that anyone could contract the disease if they come in close physical contact with someone who has been infected.
“We’re asking clinicians to test anyone for which they’re suspicious could have monkeypox so that we can determine if it moves beyond the current social group,” he said.
Unlike COVID-19, which is spread through airborne transmission, monkeypox is known to be spread through close, physical contact — either skin-to-skin or through the sharing of clothing, bedding and towels. It can also take anywhere from 7 days to two weeks for someone to start showing symptoms of monkeypox after coming into contact with someone who has been infected.
Peter Chin-Hong, a University of California, San Francisco professor of medicine who specializes in infectious diseases, said Friday that cases will undoubtedly continue to rise for the next few weeks because of the shortage of vaccines, as well as difficulties detecting the disease in its early stages.
“One of the main issues is that we can’t always tell if someone is infected in the early stages because it may just look like a pimple or in-grown hair, or people may not show rash right away,” Chin-Hong said. “That’s why we’re going to rely on vaccinations. It takes a while for the disease to set in but you can start building up immunity within days.”
“Time is really ticking before it spills over to the general public — or becomes endemic,” he added.
Cases by county
Los Angeles – 261
San Francisco – 257
Alameda – 50
Santa Clara – 41
Sacramento – 34
San Diego – 26
Contra Costa – 18
Riverside – 17
Long Beach – 12
San Mateo – 11
Berkeley – 8
Sonoma – 8
Orange – 6
Solano – 6
Kern – 5
Santa Cruz – 5
Monterey – 4
San Joaquin – 4
Fresno – 2
Marin – 2
San Bernardino – 2
Ventura – 2
Butte – 1
Napa – 1
Placer – 1
Stanislaus – 1
Tulare – 1
