The CDC has confirmed ten cases of monkeypox in Rhode Island as of Monday.
The state Department of Health is providing vaccinations through interviews and contact identification. However, the DOH notes it has been allocated less vaccine than states like Massachusetts, which has one of the highest case counts in the country.
Meantime, Congressman David Cicilline is calling on the Biden Administration to allocate 100 million dollars to states in order to combat the spread.
Congressman Cicilline says the money can be put to use in a variety of ways;
-Scale outreach efforts to people in specific communities, including but not limited to men who have sex with men (MSM), so individuals are armed with the information they need to protect themselves;
-Support clinical education to help physicians and other health care professionals to identify and properly diagnose monkeypox and differentiate it from STIs, and connect patients with treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis, social services, and other health care;
Develop more efficient diagnostic tools;
-Build up real-time surveillance and outbreak detection;
Bolster the public health workforce to ensure an adequate response to monkeypox to prevent the current outbreak from further exacerbating rising STI rates; and
-Administer vaccines to communities and healthcare workers to bolster the response as the needs arise.”
The congressman says " If we do not provide sufficient funding for our nation’s STI clinics now, it will become significantly more challenging to eradicate monkeypox in the months ahead."
So far there has been no response from the White House.
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