NORFOLK, Va. — Health officials across Virginia and North Carolina are researching ways to reduce the spread of monkeypox.
As of Tuesday, there are 72 confirmed cases in Virginia and more than 34 cases in North Carolina so far. District Director of the Virginia Beach Department of Public Health Dr. Caitlin Pedati said some of the cases are here in Hampton Roads.
“Ten of those in our region here in the 'eastern area.' So it’s certainly unfortunate that we are seeing increases in numbers but in some ways, it’s important because it means we’re identifying those patients," said Pedati.
In North Carolina, state epidemiologist Dr. Zack Moore said they have 34 confirmed monkeypox cases but believes more infections are in the community.
“We believe and really know that there’s probably cases out there that are probably not being picked up. People who aren’t coming into care or it may look like something else and doctors aren’t used to thinking about monkeypox," said Moore.
Health officials said the virus has mostly spread through sexual contact, although any close contact with an infected person can pose a risk.
“We have seen a couple of cases already in children. We’ve seen cases with household contacts and some situations so everybody needs to be aware," Moore explained.
Moore said North Carolina health officials are trying to reduce the number of monkeypox cases by expanding the number of people who can get the vaccine; he said the state has about 4,500 doses of the monkeypox vaccine from the federal government and said each person needs to take two doses.
“That’s really enough to cover 2,300 people across the state," the doctor said.
Moore and Pedati both said they are working with state and federal partners to get more doses of the monkeypox vaccine.
According to officials from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, more than 60% of monkeypox cases reported so far are in black and African-American men. The CEO of the LGBT Life Center in Norfolk said the Commonwealth needs to do more reaching out to get the vulnerable population the vaccine.
“I do think that they can use their community partners like us and other community-based organizations to deploy testing and vaccines directly to the community instead of kind of forcing everybody to call in and figure out where to go," said LGBT Life Center CEO Stacie Walls.