By Ariel Paul | Windy City Times | August 11, 2024
July saw a local uptick in cases of Mpox from the previous month, with seven active cases in Chicago, according to experts.
The current Mpox outbreak began in 2022. According to the City of Chicago’s mpox dashboard, the height of active cases was 143 during the week of July 30 of that year.
Catherine Creticos, MD, director of infectious diseases at Howard Brown Health, said the infection has been “under control” due to vaccinating at-risk individuals.
“The outbreaks have predominantly impacted the sexual and the social networks of gay and bisexual men as well as transgender and nonbinary individuals,” said Scott Bertani, director of advocacy at the National Coalition for LGBTQ Health. The coalition is a branch of HealthHIV, one of the largest national HIV advocacies and medical education companies in the nation.
According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of Mpox can include fever, skin rash, swollen lymph nodes, headaches, muscle aches, chills and tiredness.
Creticos said that there is a potential stigma associated with the disease due to its visible nature, since the lesions that occur can also cause scarring.
Bertani said that stigma is a “barrier to health.” However, the community has been “proactive,” and there has not been especially significant amounts of stigma in the LGBTQ+ community reported back.
“We do now have evidence that mpox can be sexually transmitted. But it is primarily through the close physical contact that we’re seeing transmission,” said Creticos. “Other people who were not in sexual contact did get infected. So household members, children, you know, people who were not partners of the people who had [Mpox] also became infected and can be infected with the virus.”
Bertani and Creticos both said vaccination is the best way to protect against Mpox.
“When the outbreak started, the vaccine was actually not FDA approved yet, and it’s a little bit more complicated to administer it,” said Creticos. “As the outbreak became larger, they targeted venues where people who were getting infected were visiting.
Creticos said the vaccine is now FDA-approved.
“The vaccine is widely available at pharmacies, doctor’s offices, and public health clinics across the U.S. and Chicago. It helps ensure broader coverage even after the public health emergency status ended,” said Bertani. “Individuals who have only received one dose are encouraged to come back and get that second dose because it’s never too late.”
In addition, Creticos said anyone living with HIV should be vaccinated even if they are not sexually active or part of an at-risk group otherwise.
“People living with HIV were the ones who developed such severe disease that there were four deaths in the Chicago area,” said Dr. Creticos. “There has not been a death for a while, but in the first year, there were four deaths, all among people living with HIV.”
While cases rose last month, Creticos says there is no reason to believe Mpox will return to the levels it was in 2022.
“It was a little bit of a surprise to the Board of Health and to me as a practitioner that the virus did not expand outside of at-risk individuals,” Creticos said. “It does not have the capacity to.”
The second best way to prevent mpox, according to both Bertani and Creticos, is to stay educated.
“Vaccination attempts [are] a stair-step method to engaging in a really substantive conversation about your health with your provider, so that you can take steps together for prevention and care services,” said Bertani.
