William Brangham:
Judy, over 1,000 cases of monkeypox have been recorded in more than 40 states across the U.S., though experts believe that is a serious undercount of the real number.
The monkeypox virus spreads through close skin-to-skin contact. And its symptoms can include extremely painful lesions that can last for weeks. States are grappling with a rising demand for testing, treatment and for those vaccines, which have all been in short supply.
For more on this outbreak. I’m joined now by David Harvey. He’s the director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.
David Harvey, great to have you on the “NewsHour.”
Monkeypox is not technically an STD, but we know it is passed by sex and sex-like contact. And, thus, STD clinics are really at the forefront of this. Can you just give us a sense of what they are dealing with right now?
David Harvey, Director, National Coalition of STD Directors: Well, thank you for having me.
Our system is severely burdened by this latest outbreak. We are referring to this as a sexually associated infection. We know there’s a vast undercount of cases because of slow rollout of testing and vaccines, and treatment present problems too.
But the nation’s STD clinics are bearing the burden of responding to monkeypox. There is no federal funding, believe it or not, for STD clinics in America. So this latest outbreak is very burdensome on an already overstretched network of safety net providers.
Discovered on: 2022-07-14 22:45:30
Source: States grapple with rising demand for monkeypox vaccines
