Situation Report | July 11, 2022
New York State
The state Department of Health (DOH) has released vaccine eligibility for the initial doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine from the federal government, prioritizing communities with the highest level of need. As vaccine supply remains limited, DOH urges New Yorkers to stay informed about monkeypox and the protective public health precautions everyone should take.
Based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance, and in working with local public health authorities including the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDOHMH), statewide eligibility currently includes the following New Yorkers:
- Individuals with recent exposure to monkeypox within the past 14 days.
- Those at high risk of a recent exposure to monkeypox, including members of the gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender non-conforming community and other communities of men who have sex with men and who have engaged in intimate or skin-to-skin contact with others in the past 14 days areas where monkeypox is spreading.
- Individuals who have had skin-to-skin contact with someone in a social network experiencing monkeypox activity, including men who have sex with men who meet partners through an online website, digital application (“app”), or social event, such as a bar or party.
Of the 56,000 doses of vaccine currently available nationwide, 8,195 have been allocated to New York State by the federal government, with 5,989 doses going to New York City. Of the remaining 2,206 doses, 750 will be distributed to Suffolk County, 450 to Westchester County, 400 to Nassau County, 300 to Saratoga County, and 40 each to Rockland and Sullivan counties. 226 doses will be used by DOH to distribute to close contacts of known cases, healthcare workers who are exposed on the job, and as they are needed elsewhere throughout the State. Over the coming days and week, local county health departments, who will administer the vaccine directly, will establish their own appointment processes.
As of July 6, 2022, a total of 128 confirmed orthopoxvirus/monkeypox cases-a designation established by the CDC-have been identified with 119 in New York City, 5 in Westchester County, 1 in Sullivan County, 1 in Chemung County, 1 in Rockland County and 1 in Suffolk County.
More information is available here.
HHS
On June 28, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced an enhanced nationwide vaccination strategy to mitigate the spread of monkeypox. The strategy will vaccinate and protect those at-risk of monkeypox, prioritize vaccines for areas with the highest numbers of cases, and provide guidance to state, territorial, tribal, and local health officials to aide their planning and response efforts.
Under the strategy, HHS is rapidly expanding access to hundreds of thousands of doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine for prophylactic use against monkeypox in areas with the highest transmission and need, using a tiered allocation system. Jurisdictions can also request shipments of the ACAM2000 vaccine, which is in much greater supply, but due to significant side effects is not recommended for everyone.
HHS will provide 296,000 doses of JYNNEOS vaccine. Of that amount, 56,000 doses will be made available immediately, and an additional 240,000 doses will be made available in the coming weeks. HHS expects more than 750,000 additional JYNNEOS doses to be made available over the summer, and an additional 500,000 doses will undergo completion, inspection, and release throughout the fall, totaling 1.6 million doses available this year.
JYNNEOS vaccine will be allocated using a four-tier distribution strategy that prioritizes jurisdictions with the highest case rates of monkeypox. Within each tier, doses of JYNNEOS will be allocated based on the number of individuals at risk for monkeypox who also have pre-existing conditions, like HIV.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices currently recommends vaccination for those at high risk following a confirmed monkeypox exposure. Given the large number of contacts and difficulty in identifying all contacts during the current outbreak, vaccine will now be provided to individuals with confirmed and presumed monkeypox exposures.
This includes those who had close physical contact with someone diagnosed with monkeypox, those who know their sexual partner was diagnosed with monkeypox, and men who have sex with men who have recently had multiple sex partners in a venue where there was known to be monkeypox or in an area where monkeypox is spreading.
As of July 6, the CDC has received reports of approximately 605 cases of monkeypox in the in the United States.
On July 6, the CDC announced that Labcorp will begin using the agency’s orthopoxvirus test—which detects all non-smallpox-related orthopoxviruses, including monkeypox—effectively doubling the current testing capacity provided through the CDC Laboratory Response Network (LRN). The CDC said it expects additional commercial laboratories to join the national effort to expand monkeypox testing capacity throughout the month of July.
World Health Organization
On June 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) declined to declare the monkeypox outbreak that has spread around the world a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) as of now. The announcement came after a WHO emergency committee met on June 23 to discuss the outbreak. Some 4,000 cases have been documented since mid-May, largely in Europe and the Americas — outside the regions in West and Central Africa where the virus is endemic and has animal reservoirs.
Though the Committee agreed that the outbreak requires coordinated action to stop the spread of the virus—including greater surveillance, improved diagnostics, community engagement and risk communication, and the appropriate use of therapeutics, vaccines, and public health measures such as contact tracing and isolation—there was disagreement among members about whether the event constitutes a PHEIC.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he plans to reconvene the Emergency Committee during the week of July 18, or sooner if needed, in order to update members on the outbreak’s current epidemiology and evolution, as well as the implementation of countermeasures.
Some good resources on Monkeypox are the John Hopkins Center for Health Security and the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center.