PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Florida health leaders are tracking 1,317 cases of monkeypox across 28 counties. Florida is the third highest state for confirmed cases.
Miami Dade and Broward counties are leading the state in the number of cases.
Current numbers in the Tampa Bay area:
- Hillsborough County: 57 confirmed cases
- Pinellas County: 51 confirmed cases.
- Polk County: Six confirmed cases.
- Pasco County: Four reported and confirmed cases.
- Sarasota County: One reported and confirmed case.
Dr. Bob Wallace at Love the Golden Rule Clinic is staying busy. His St. Petersburg family practice doctor’s office has been flooded with calls about monkeypox.
“What we are getting is more calls from people who say they have been exposed,” Dr. Wallace explained.
RELATED: Martin County reports Florida's first monkeypox case in child under 4
The virus requires close physical contact and can take up to 21 days for symptoms to appear. Dr. Wallace said many of his patients are overly concerned.
“People have started coming in with just a tiny blister thinking they have monkeypox. We are encouraging everyone to look at the photos of what the monkeypox lesions look like so you don’t worry when you have a pimple.”
Yet, he said he’s grateful that it’s getting the awareness it needs as Florida reports more than 300 new monkeypox cases in a single week, and the nation works to ramp up vaccine supplies.
Vaccines are now being administered intradermally. What that means is instead of one person being vaccinated per vial, health leaders can vaccinate five people per vial.
That’s going to help tremendously, according to Ulyee Choe at the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County.
“Providing the vaccines intradermally is a game changer. It increases the supply five-fold just by doing that conversion,” Choe explained during a statewide update on August 16.
Florida is also now reporting its first case of monkeypox in a child under four years old in Martin County. So far, experts believe kids are getting the virus in their home setting, and although schools are back in session, they’re not overly concerned.
“It’s not readily transmissible. It needs that direct skin-to-skin contact. What I’ve reviewed in some of the literature is that they don’t believe schools, especially K-12, will be big drivers of this,” Choe added.
Another big step is making treatment easier to access. Dr. Wallace just applied to receive some of the T-Poxx treatment for his St. Pete patients.
“We’re armed and ready. If we have patients coming in with confirmed monkeypox, we are ready to apply. We’re not sure how long the process will take, but we do have all our paperwork in,” Dr. Wallace added.
Dr. Choe said treatment requirements have been reduced and streamlined, but people still need to meet strict criteria such as bleeding, hospitalization, those less than eight years old, immunocompromised, and other factors to receive treatment.
Dr. Choe also said data coming out of Europe shows monkeypox cases have slowed down there, which could be a good sign for the U.S. in the coming weeks and months.
