The Warning Signs Were Ignored for the Monkeypox Outbreak in the US

Listen to this article

Monkeypox has been a growing issue for a couple of decades and the current global outbreak was preventable. However, a leading expert on the virus said the impending threat was massively overlooked. A UCLA epidemiology professor Dr. Anne Rimoin has spent around 20 years working on Monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Anne Rimoin said there was a time when the virus spread outside rural Africa and it initiated a global response. She said the monkeypox virus was constantly spreading in degraded and exposed populations for decades in Africa. It is important that the monkeypox virus is an impending issue for decades. A new report has confirmed virus cases in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, South America, and the Middle East.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) said there are at least 750 monkeypox cases across every state in the US. But Rimoin said it was undoubtedly a knockdown due to not availability of testing. However, monkeypox is infrequently deadly and doesn’t normally lead to hospitalization. The virus doesn’t spread through the air but people can get it from physical close contact.

The US has the Ability to Handle the Monkeypox Outbreak

Moreover, some public health experts said the US has the ability to handle the outbreak. But the recent wrong steps are now considered much similar to the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. There aren’t more tests or vaccines immediately available due to the unavailability of a complete picture of the spread. A biologist at New York University Joseph Osmundson issued a statement in June.

He said that he didn’t find a concept of the level of the monkeypox outbreak in the United States. The CDC responded in late June that it would rip forward with a belligerent public health response. It would supposedly lead to the monkeypox outbreak and the activation of its emergency operation centers. The CDC said commercial laboratories have now started monkeypox testing.

CDC will Improve Monkeypox Testing Efforts

The director of CDC Rochelle Walensky issued a statement. She said it will now improve the testing capability to make it simpler for health providers and patients to access testing. However, Rimoin asked why there weren’t more dedicated efforts to address the virus when monkeypox was spreading in African regions.

Rimoin said in 2010 that there was a significant increase in monkeypox cases since the termination of the smallpox virus and vaccine. Keep in mind that the smallpox vaccine effectively secures people from monkeypox. We need to prioritize dealing with emerging global disease threats. She added that we do need to get in front of growing infectious diseases.

Monkeypox Virus Vaccine is Now Available

She added that we are entirely connected with travel, trade, population movement, and growth. We can’t make mistakes again that an infection happening in a remote area in the world will not affect us. It is more likely that it would obviously affect our people across the country without taking essential measures. We must focus on the health of our citizens and provide them with rapid testing.

Rimoin also said we must continue to chase behind them and always pay the price for not making essential measures. She said it was a concern of attempting to comprise a virus that was formerly growing. It is much simpler to keep away from trouble and it is to bring out of trouble. Meanwhile, we now have vaccines and therapeutics with complete knowledge about the virus.