The federal government plans to end in January the public health emergency it declared earlier this year after an outbreak of mpox disease has infected more than 29,000 people across the US.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mpox cases have plummeted in recent weeks, with only a handful of new infections being reported each week in November. At the height of the outbreak. During the summer, hundreds of people were infected every week.
The virus is mainly spread between men who have sex with infected men.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement that the public health emergency is expected to end in January.
“Given the current low number of cases, HHS does not think it is necessary to extend the state of emergency declaration when it ends on January 31, 2023,” Becerra said. “But we won’t rush it – we will continue to closely monitor case trends and encourage everyone at risk to get the vaccine for free.”
The US has been fighting to contain the mpox outbreak for months. Trials have been difficult to conduct and the government has failed to deploy a vaccine, with weeks of delays in delivering 800,000 doses of the vaccine to clinics in the hardest-hit major cities. .
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The situation began to change in August, shortly after the government declared a public health emergency and the White House invited two top officials — Robert Fenton, who led the COVID-19 vaccination effort. of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and CDC’s Dr. Demetre Daskalakis — to lead the response to the virus outbreak.
Their strategies include reaching out to local clinics and vaccinating people at events or Pride parades. As the two-dose Jynneos vaccine became more available nationally, cases began to decline.
To date, 17 people have died from the virus in the US
The easing of the mpox public health emergency will be a test for the Biden administration as it prepares to declare an end to the COVID-19 public health emergency, expected will last at least until January 11. The administration has made a statement with no indication of when it will declare an end to the coronavirus public health emergency but has promised to make an announcement. 60 days notice.
Last month, the World Health Organization renamed monkeypox to mpox, citing concerns the original name of the decades-old animal disease could be construed as discriminatory and racist.
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