US declares monkeypox public health emergency

Monkeypox is a national public health emergency in the United States, the Joe Biden administration decreed Thursday.

The emergency decree, announced by Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, effectively frees up emergency funds and gives federal agencies the possibility to make emergency contracts for employees, vaccines and medicines.

From May 18 until now, the US has 6,617 confirmed cases of the disease, with no deaths. The decision comes after the states of New York, California and Illinois, where the country’s three largest cities are located, declared an emergency in recent days. These three states account for 46% of confirmed cases in the US, followed by Texas, Florida and Georgia.

“We are prepared to take our response to the virus to another level, and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously,” Becerra told reporters.

There is concern about the quantity and availability of vaccines in the country. There is only one immunizer authorized by the FDA, the body equivalent to Anvisa, and the government announced last week that it would distribute 1.1 million vaccines, the equivalent to immunize 550,000 people, which has provoked criticism that the Biden administration has no made sufficient efforts to increase supply.

According to the American press, government officials have identified 1.6 million people considered to be at high risk for the disease. FDA official Robert Califf told reporters that the government is considering giving fractional doses to the population.

The White House also says it has the capacity to carry out 80,000 tests for the disease a week.

According to the portal Our World in Data, from the University of Oxford, until Wednesday (4), 26,073 cases of monkeypox had been confirmed in 83 countries. The disease has been considered a global health emergency by the WHO since July 23.

Despite praise from the health sector, which pressured Biden for the decree of national emergency, Thursday’s act could bring some political embarrassment to the Democrat, who is also pressing the government to declare gun violence and access to abortion as emergencies. of public health.

Monkeypox is caused by a virus of the orthopoxvirus genus. The initial symptoms of the disease are mainly body aches, fever, malaise and tiredness. Afterwards, patients have blister-shaped lesions on the body.

In May, when the pathogen spread in non-endemic regions (until then, it was an endemic virus in central and western Africa), such as Europe and the United States, the alert went up around the world.