Will California, Los Angeles declare monkeypox a public health emergency?

As monkeypox cases continue to rise across California, health officials said they are deploying additional resources to combat the outbreak, but they are not yet ready to declare a public health emergency. Monkeypox cases across the state are most concentrated in San Francisco and Los Angeles, making up two-thirds of California’s almost 800 confirmed or probable monkeypox cases, according to state data . On Thursday, San Francisco declared a state of emergency as the number of cases there hit 281.

Case counts in L. A. , San Francisco and the state have all more than doubled in the last two weeks, as the virus continues to spread almost exclusively among gay and bisexual men, as well as transgender and nonbinary people, officials said.

Los Angeles public health officials, however, have not yet declared any kind of public health emergency, a move San Francisco leaders said will allow them to mobilize more resources and accelerate funding to crack down on the outbreak. The L. A.

Department of Public Health did not respond to questions Friday about any such plans. Two members of the county’s Board of Supervisors did confirm that L. A.

officials are considering declaring an emergency for the outbreak, but neither gave a possible timeline or parameters for that. “We are reviewing if declaring a local public health emergency would strengthen our local response, but it is clear that the supply of the one thing people are clamoring for — vaccine doses — is not under our control,” Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said in a statement Friday. “We know the [federal government is] trying to increase the supply of vaccines, but in the meantime we could use more funding to provide for outreach and engagement services to better protect our vulnerable populations.

” Dr. Tomás Aragón, California’s public health director, said Friday the statewide agency continues to assess the situation but has not made a determination. “We continue to evaluate and monitor the situation to decide whether we need to declare an emergency to access any additional authority, resources or if we have any regulatory [or] statutory barriers,” he said.

“That review is ongoing. ” Aragón said the state has been able to utilize much of the public health infrastructure established during the COVID-19 pandemic to respond to the monkeypox outbreak, like software for contact tracing, a vaccine registry and disease surveillance system. But many state leaders and LGBTQ organizations worry it’s not enough, and have called on the state to declare a public health emergency for monkeypox outbreak, which could increase urgency and resources to communities most affected.

It’s time for California & San Francisco to declare a state of emergency on monkeypox. Monkeypox isn’t contained. It’s spreading & we don’t have enough vaccines or testing.

A state of emergency allows flexibility on testing, contracting for services & vaccine administration. On Friday, Los Angeles County reported 306 cases, up from 279 the day prior. Of the cases in L.

A. from a week prior — when there were 162 confirmed or probable cases — all had been recorded in men, 85% of whom identified as LGBTQ. Public health officials continue to stress that monkeypox can spread to anyone, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, through intimate skin-to-skin contact or on sheets or towels that have touched the virus, and sometimes through respiratory droplets.

While not a sexually transmitted disease, monkeypox can easily spread during sexual encounters, officials said. Aragón said the 786 confirmed and probable cases in California have occurred in 27 different counties. At this point, 11 people have been hospitalized with the virus, but he said no one in the state has died.

This strain of monkeypox is rarely fatal, experts have said, and the available vaccines and treatments are considered effective — but they remain in short supply. California San Francisco Mayor London Breed declares a state of emergency Thursday over monkeypox outbreak. “We continue to approach monkeypox with the utmost urgency to slow it spreading California, distributing scarce vaccine doses to impacted communities, providing prevention information and testing and doing what we can do to increase access to treatment,” Aragón said.

The state has requested up to 800,000 more doses of the Jynneos vaccine, but Aragón said Friday they are expecting their next shipment “soon,” which will only include 72,000 doses. “We’ve communicated to the federal government that we need more vaccine,” Aragón said. To date, the state has received about 38,000 doses, of which 25,000 have been sent to local public health departments and mobile vaccine clinics, he said.

Los Angeles County, which receives doses directly from the federal government, has received about 24,000 doses to date, and Aragón said Friday it can expect an additional 48,000 in the next shipment. L. A.

public health officials have continued to call its supply of vaccines “extremely limited. ” Los Angeles Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said that even without an emergency declaration, county officials are taking steps to respond to the outbreak, including this week passing a resolution to urge the federal government to ramp up vaccine production and distribution , while locally building up a “vaccination network” and getting information to vulnerable communities.

“I am exploring all options that we can take to curb the spread here, including a declaration of a local public health emergency,” Solis said in a statement Friday. “I want to assure our residents that we are taking this public health risk very seriously, and are committed to taking the actions necessary to end this rise in cases. ”.