(WXYZ) — The monkeypox outbreak needs to be taken more seriously, according to top White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tallied 1,814 cases nationwide — 13 of those cases are in Michigan.
Dr. Fauci has said that we don’t know the scope or the potential of this monkeypox outbreak, and we need to act like the virus can spread more widely than it is right now. In fact, it’s very likely that we have more cases than what’s been tallied so far.
Some experts are concerned that the window to control this outbreak is closing or might have already closed. This could lead to the virus spreading more broadly in the community. Right now, the high-risk group is men who engage in sexual activity with other men.
Last week, the CDC confirmed eight cases of monkeypox were diagnosed in people who were female at birth. So, if the virus becomes embedded in our communities, it could become a persistent virus.
It could spread like how a sexually transmitted disease would. Even though monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease, it does spread through close contact, usually through bodily fluids including respiratory secretions, infected skin lesions or recently contaminated objects.
Back in medical school, most physicians like myself learned that monkeypox is typically mild. But we’re now finding out that this virus can be quite severe. Symptoms typically include fever, body aches, chills and fatigue. But the virus can also cause pimple or blisterlike lesions on the body. Some are even developing in the anus, genitals and mouth. These lesions can be quite painful and may leave behind debilitating scarring.
As for deaths, the type of monkeypox virus — the West African type — is rarely fatal. But it can happen. So far, no one has died of the disease in the United States, but there have been fatalities in Africa. The people most at risk of getting severely ill or dying are those with weakened immune systems, kids under eight years of age, people with a history of eczema and people who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
So, in my opinion, we shouldn’t be dismissive of this virus because it doesn’t have a high fatality rate. It still can cause severe illness and that’s why it’s important that we get more testing and more vaccines.
The good news is that the CDC is working on expanding testing capacity. That will give us an idea of how much the virus has spread in our communities.
More vaccines are coming; 700,000 will be distributed by the end of July. But we still need a lot more vaccines for the people who need it, and to help control the spread of this virus.
