County says monkeypox cases are rare

Matt Baide | Sep 08, 20220

One person had a confirmed case of Monkeypox in Mason County, but a county official said it’s unlikely that “a lot of” cases will occur.

According to Mason County Public Health Nurse Audrey O’Connor, there was one case and one contact from the case who has been treated. There were 650 cases in the state as of Sept. 2, with most of those cases in either King, Pierce or Clark counties.

O’Connor said case rates have declined steeply in the past two weeks in urban areas such as New York City and Chicago.

“We really don’t expect we’re going to have a lot of cases,” O’Connor told the Journal. “This virus is not something you can casually get. It’s something that’s skin-to-skin, close contact, with people who actually have monkey pox and are showing the lesions on their body. It’s not something people are going to go to the grocery store or a movie theater and be able to get.”

The county has received calls from the public. She said many people don’t understand it and thought it was like COVID-19. She said the public does not need to be vaccinated. People who are in the high-risk population, which was identified as 25- to 35-year-old men where 90% of the cases have occurred, have probably been notified if they should receive a vaccine.

The county has joined with Mason Health and Mason General, similar to the partnership with COVID, and the vaccine is available at the hospital through the pharmacy.

Mason Health’s Senior Director of Ancillary Services Nicole Eddins said they have not received much inquiry into the monkeypox vaccine and they have yet to administer a vaccine dose. The vaccine is similar to COVID in that it is two doses, with the first dose 28 days before the second dose. Eddins said the key to the vaccine is getting it within a four-day window from exposure. Mason Health also has the antiviral to treat anyone with monkeypox.

Lesions are the telltale sign of monkeypox, according to O’Connor. People generally get monkeypox through skin-to-skin, close contact with someone who has lesions. She said it cannot be contracted through droplets.

“This virus kind of came out of nowhere. There were some cases in Europe and Africa, but it wasn’t even on people’s radar when they came into the ER maybe with some unusual rashes and things like that,” O’Connor said. “I don’t think it’s going to be cyclic in the way that influenza is or anything like that. I don’t think we have any information on that. There’s still, of course, these viruses morph and change. They’re looking at how this is going to behave but I think we’re really, in the U.S., we’ve made significant progress with shutting this down pretty rapidly.”

“It’s not a case for people to panic,” O’Connor said.