MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — There are at least 39 cases of monkeypox in South Carolina and 111 cases in North Carolina as of Aug. 9, 2022. State officials said Mecklenburg County continues to be the epicenter of the outbreak in the Tar Heel State.
But doctors said, generally, most cases of monkeypox are mild. Although for some people, it can be extremely painful, and uncomfortable and isolation periods can be several weeks long.
Novant Health officials said they have not had to hospitalize a patient with monkeypox yet, but clinicians are desperately working to build supplies of TPOXX, a drug approved by the FDA to treat smallpox. Monkeypox is in the same family of viruses and the medicine could also help those patients.
“The challenge for clinicians is, while this is the drug we’ve been tasked with using, it’s not on every corner in every drug store, and it’s very difficult to get your hands on it,” Dr. David Priest with Novant Health said.
The antiviral is being kept in the strategic national stockpile. Novant Health has been able to get a limited supply of the medication.
Luckily, doctors said most cases don’t require TPOXX.
“They’re recommending the drug for more severe cases, or people who are very immunocompromised and run the risk of having very severe cases,” Priest said. “They’re recommending it for pregnant women who have monkeypox sometimes young children or sometimes there are severe anatomic locations of monkeypox disease that they recommend the treatment for.”
Demand for the vaccine used to prevent monkeypox is also far outpacing the current supply. It’s a two-dose series, and Novant Health officials said they’ve been given 100 doses of the shots so far.
“By end of this week, we’ll be out,” Priest said. “But we feel good about having the supply necessary for dose number two for those 100 people, that has to happen, and hopefully additional doses beyond that that we can utilize in our patient populations.”
Hundreds of people in Mecklenburg County are added to the vaccine waitlist each day. While supplies are low, certain at-risk groups have to be prioritized for care.
Monkeypox is primarily spreading within certain sexual networks, although anyone can get it through prolonged skin-to-skin contact.
“Where is the issue right now, what parts of our community need the support and the preventative therapies and the vaccinations and the tests and the treatments, it happens to be in the gay community right now," Priest said. "As I mentioned, we already are aware of cases that have spread outside the gay community that have nothing to do with sexual activity. So, we want to put our limited resources where they need to be used because we want to make sure this doesn’t spread any further than it has."
Someone with monkeypox is still contagious until the lesions are completely healed. That could take anywhere from two to four weeks, which can really disrupt someone’s life. Doctors said that’s another reason to be cautious and get the proper care if necessary.
Contact Chloe Leshner at cleshner@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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