MPV facts vs fiction
dallasvoice.comMonkeypox is not an STD or a ‘gay’ disease, health care professionals say, urging everyone to take precautions TAMMYE NASH | Managing Editornash@dallasvoice.com As of Tuesday evening, July 26, there had been 3,591 cases of monkeypox reported in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control, with 231 of those cases in Texas, according to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
But by the time you read this, the numbers undoubtedly will have changed. And it will likely be a dramatic change. That’s because, according to DeeJay Johannessen, “In Texas, the number of monkeypox cases is doubling every three days.” Johannessen, CEO of Tarrant County’s HELP Center for LGBT Health and Wellness, explained that after a person is infected, it can take five to 21 days for them to begin showing symptoms, “And the only way to test for monkeypox is when someone is symptomatic, by swabbing a rash or a lesion,” he explained.
He pointed out that as of July 12, two cases of monkeypox had been diagnosed in Tarrant County. By July 25, that number had jumped to 12. “In 11 days, it went up by 600 percent.
It is going to continue to spread,” Johannessen warned. Johannessen said HELP had already diagnosed 10 cases at its clinics, noting that HELP sends swabs to Tarrant County Public Health for testing, and that it usually take one to two days to get results. “So from the time we take a swab to the time we get results and contact the patient, that can be three days.
