After an announcement naming Monkeypox a global health emergency a few weeks ago, the United States declared it a public health emergency across the entire country.
On Thursday, August 4, 2022, the Health Secretary, Xavier Becerra, announced in a press release that the Biden Administration marks Monkeypox as a public health emergency. Last month, the World Health Organization stated that Monkeypox is a global health emergency.
America decided to announce this after cases reached over 7,000 across 48 states. Government officials made this statement to demonstrate their commitment to fighting this virus. The Administration is taking immediate steps to slow the spread. Those steps include making vaccines assessable, increasing testing and treatments, and spreading awareness about the virus and ways to avoid attracting it.
This label on the outbreak will open up more funding and increase the number of resources to fight this virus.
On August 2, the Biden Administration announced a team dedicated to Monkeypox and reducing its impact. Becerra has stated that there will be 786,000 more vaccines available in the U.S. This vaccine has been expedited and approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This process was made more accessible and faster because of the relationship between Monkeypox and Smallpox.
The Monkeypox team has also increased the amount of testing available. There was an increase from 6,000 tests a week to 80,000. More testing will help to accurately estimate the rate at which the virus spreads and locate hot spots to open vaccination centers.
One of the other things that the team is working on is spreading awareness and reaching out to the communities that Monkeypox is affecting the most. This also includes conducting more research about the virus.
The action of declaring Monkeypox a public health emergency in America will help to stop the spread of this virus. The Biden Administration hopes its aggressive response will combat the outbreak and get it under control.
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