Confirmed monkeypox cases reported in Georgia grow to 158, CDC says

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) - The monkeypox outbreak continues to spread. Atlanta-based CDC reports more than 2,300 cases nationwide, including 158 cases in Georgia, up 50 percent from a week ago.

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services recently delivered an additional 3,000 vaccines to Georgia for a total of 6,000 in the past month, but doctors say there is still not enough vaccines for everyone who is eligible to receive one.

Fulton County received another allotment of vaccines this week. The Board of Health held a vaccine clinic on Thursdays. Joshua-James Simon-Lybick got his first dose of the two-shot vaccine. He said he has friends who contracted the rare virus.

“From the worst that I’ve seen. I would not wish that on my worst enemy,” said Joshua-James Simon-Lybick of Atlanta. “The worst ones have been like can’t sleep for like multiple days because of searing pain.”

The clinic was Fulton third in the last three weeks. The doses are limited, and the clinics are exclusively set up for men who have sex with men, a group considered by the CDC to be most at risk.

“I want to be clear this is not the only to say that this is not the only way that it’s spread, but we’re seeing it in this group of people at a greater degree than others because of that skin-to-skin contact,” said Dr. Jayne Morgan of Piedmont Healthcare.

The doctor says the general public does not need to be concerned about getting the vaccine at this point. The number of cases does not support that need, but monkeypox should be on everybody’s radar.

Those in the gay community, have expressed frustration as hundreds rushed to sign up for the vaccine, many being shut out within minutes.

“So I just jumped on it immediately because I heard in the comments that it was like that! So when I jumped on there, I didn’t even really think about it,” said Trevor McGee of Atlanta. “I just signed up as I could and took a time slot not evening knowing it was the next day.”

The Fulton County Health Department changed the way it rolled out the sign-up process for the Thursday vaccination clinic. They alert their followers on social media of when they planned to post the registration link.

“Frankly the demand is simply much, much, much, much much higher than supply,” said Darryl Carver of Fulton County Board of Health. “These are people who clearly care about their health and are clearly responding to it.”

Another clinic in Fulton County is scheduled for Tuesday, July 26, 2022, but that clinic is booked. Carver says more clinics will take place once the health department receives more doses of the vaccine.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The number of confirmed cases of monkeypox in the state of Georgia has climbed to 158, according to the CDC.

That number previously climbed from 96 confirmed cases on July 14 and there were 48 reported on July 13.

According to the CDC, Georgia previously had the highest number of confirmed cases in the southeast United States. Now, officials have reported 208 cases in Florida. There have been 356 confirmed cases in California. New York state has seen the highest number of confirmed cases in the U.S. with 581, officials add.

There are seven states that have not reported any confirmed cases of monkeypox including Alaska, Mississippi, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Maine and Vermont.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, infectious disease specialist at the Emory University School of Medicine, attributed this spike to a surge in testing capability nationwide.

“It’s testing. We weren’t testing enough before. Now we have testing in many commercial labs. So there’s more testing happening. As more testing happens more cases are going to be diagnosed,” said del Rio in an interview with CBS46 on July 14.