Monkeypox Outbreak: Weekly Update (October 10, 2022)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says monkeypox is unlikely to be eradicated in the US in the near future.

As of October 7, there were 26,577 confirmed cases and one confirmed death due to monkeypox in the US, according to the CDC.

Monkeypox unlikely to be eradicated

In its technical report, the CDC explored different scenarios for the spread of the monkeypox virus in the US. The agency predicts that the low-level transmission could continue indefinitely. However, the CDC does not have a projection of the number of how many men who have sex with men — the group disproportionally affected by the outbreak — could get infected.

The CDC report also predicts that monkeypox is unlikely to be eliminated in the US in the near future, despite the outbreak slowing down.

Infections after the second dose of the vaccine

A small study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined 90 monkeypox cases after one or two doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine.

Of 7,339 people who got a first dose of the vaccine in the Chicago area, 90 tested positive for monkeypox. Of those 90 cases, 37 occurred 1 to 7 days after vaccination, and 32 cases occurred 8 to 14 days after vaccination.

Eight people tested positive for monkeypox more than 28 days after the first dose of the JYNNEOS, and of these, two people tested positive more than 14 days after the second dose.

According to the research authors, some cases occurring between 1 and 14 days after vaccination may not represent vaccine failure because the incubation period for monkeypox is 3 to 17 days, and some patients may have sought vaccination after realizing they were exposed. However, the researchers found the two breakthrough infections at least three weeks after a second dose concerning.

The authors emphasize that the study's limitations include the small number of patients and the involvement of a single testing and vaccination site. In addition, the post-vaccination observation period was not uniform across the cohort.