LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) commended President Joseph Biden for proclaiming a national state of emergency on monkeypox earlier today. The move comes as more than 5,100 cases have been reported across the country. According to the New York Times, the declaration “… gives federal agencies power to direct money toward developing and evaluating vaccines and drugs, to access emergency funding and to hire additional workers to help manage the outbreak, which began in May.”
“We thank President Biden for formally recognizing monkeypox as a national public health emergency today,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein. “With vaccine doses in critically short supply for the foreseeable future, this declaration should help free up those and other resources to help contain and fight monkeypox across the country in both hard-hit regions and jurisdictions where monkeypox may just be gaining a toehold.”
New York State, New York City and San Francisco all declared states of emergency last week or over the weekend for monkeypox outbreaks in their jurisdictions. California Governor Gavin Newsom followed suit, proclaiming a state of emergency on monkeypox for the State of California late Monday. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously ratified a declaration of state of emergency during its weekly Board meeting Tuesday.
“It’s time to act swiftly and deploy resources and staff to make up for the time we’ve lost combatting this virus,” added Weinstein.
Since mid-May, monkeypox, a virus previously endemic in only a handful of African countries, has swept through communities of mostly gay & bisexual men and transgender and nonbinary people throughout the United States and elsewhere in over 70 countries globally. Sadly, the U.S. and many other regions have been woefully unprepared to handle these outbreaks, with vaccines shortages worldwide and with months-long production delays for additional vaccines expected.
Monkeypox has become a worldwide public health crisis, with more than 25,800 confirmed or presumptive positive cases reported as of today across more than 70 countries where it is not considered endemic, according to Reuters’ Monkeypox Factbox.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.6 million individuals in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth, follow us @aidshealthcare or subscribe to our AHF podcast “AHFter Hours.”