HOUSTON — As monkeypox cases continue to grow across Texas, some Houston-area residents say they’re having a hard time accessing the vaccine.
Daniel, who requested for KHOU 11 use his first name only, said Wednesday it had been at least five days since his exposure at an out-of-state event to someone who later tested positive for monkeypox.
The Houston man said so far, he’s been feeling good physically.
“As of now, if there’s no lesions or no fever, you just move on with your life and keep going,” he said.
However, he’s having trouble trying to get the vaccine, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends be given within four days of exposure for the best chance to prevent the onset of the disease.
Daniel says he called Houston Health Department about it Monday and again on Wednesday but has heard nothing.
“Never received a phone call. Never received a message or anything,” Daniel said. “It’s actually quite frustrating.”
Daniel said his doctor also reached out.
“A lot of the feedback that we’re receiving, for those of us that are candidates for the vaccine, is to contact your doctor,” he said. “I did contact my doctor, and they said that they’ve had two positive cases yesterday. They tried to reach out to the health department, for which they were unsuccessful at getting any sort of assistance or anything.”
KHOU shared Daniel’s story with the city’s chief medical officer, Dr. David Persse, during an interview Wednesday.
“There really need to be two criteria,” Persse said. “There needs to be a known, confirmed case, and then they need to have significant exposure to that, and so, this is where the epidemiologists and interviews come into play. And in (Daniel’s) case, when he has traveled across state, now we’ve got multiple health departments involved, so coordinating that information, it really shouldn’t be too much of a challenge or a delay, but you know, being realistic sometimes, it can be cause you gotta get the right people talking to the right people. And then today, at this point, the CDC still has to approve vaccine for that individual.”
Persse said he and others are also frustrated with the current process.
He said that because Houston has a low number of confirmed cases compared to other parts of the U.S., they’ve received a lower number of doses.
“(We received) enough to treat 150 people, and we were able to use that on about 130 of the 150 people,” Persse said. “We’re using the rest of it as best we can but trying to use it as most effectively as we can. But yeah, we all wish we had more vaccine.”
Persse said the Houston region is expecting up to 5,000 more doses of vaccine to come from the federal government, though local officials haven’t received a shipment date.
He said the city and county health departments are currently working together to figure out how those doses will be allotted.
In the meantime, Persse and Dr. Ericka Brown, Local Health Authority with Harris County Public Health, said their departments are trying to be proactive by educating people about symptoms and preventing spread.
“What we need from the community is the community’s help to be vigilant,” Brown said. “Because it’s direct spread, the community, specifically those who are at higher risk, need to be asking their partners questions if they have rashes, if they’re feeling sick, and they also need to make choices and determine whether it’s safe at that time to take certain risks in their behavior. That’s the best thing that we can do at this time because it is not recommended to vaccinate the general public because the risk is very low, and it is through direct contact.”
Monkeypox is spread through direct contact with infection, prolonged face-to-face contact, touching items that the infection previously touched, in pregnancy to the fetus and through infected animals.
The symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion and rashes.
Houston Health Department’s monkeypox call center can be reached at 832-393-4220.
Harris County Public Health has also set up a monkeypox hotline for questions about testing, vaccination, and other information at 832-927-0707.