Call for Urgent Response to Monkeypox (MPV) Outbreak

According to the most recent data from CDC, there are now over 14,500 confirmed cases of MPV worldwide, with over 2,500 cases in the United States. Nearly 10% of all cases in the US are in Illinois, and cases are continuing to surge every day. As a community health center dedicated to serving the LGBTQ+ community, we are very concerned that this MPV outbreak will become endemic unless equitable and comprehensive action is taken now.

We wrote a letter to federal, state, and city elected officials and public health leaders detailing our experience battling the MPV outbreak and lifting up concerns and barriers that our patients are experiencing. We called for urgent steps to be taken in order to rapidly increase vaccine supply, ensure equitable vaccine distribution, improve dissemination of accurate and destigmatizing information, support safety net providers and community organizations who are battling multiple public health crises, and reduce barriers to initiating treatment for severe MPV. You can read the entire letter here (pdf).

We appreciate the work that public health leaders and LGBTQ+ community advocates have done so far in responding to the MPV outbreak, and we know that more must be done to protect our communities. We must build on the lessons learned from our public health response to HIV and COVID-19 so that we can avoid repeating the same mistakes. We must act now before it is too late to implement equitable and evidence-based strategies to improve access to MPV testing, treatment, vaccination, and education.

MPV Resources:

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