White House holds DFW monkeypox briefing
Dr. Demetre Dashkalakis The White House held a briefing on monkeypox with DFW leaders this afternoon (Friday, Nov. 18). Monkeypox cases have declines 93 percent since the height of the outbreak in August, according to Dr.
Demetre Dashkalakis, part of the White House response team. And while Houston continues to have more cases than Dallas and still ranks third nationally in new cases, he described the DFW area as a warm spot.
So the strategy is to reduce incidence of the virus even further using a hyper-local strategy. Fewer and fewer counties around the country are seeing any cases but he described Dallas as a “Smoldering ember.” Texas is one of six states that have had more than 500 cases of the disease.
Interestingly, 38 percent of those who have contracted monkeypox are HIV-positive and 61 percent are HIV-positive or have had an STI over the last year.
