According to the CDC, Georgia has 96 confirmed cases of monkeypox as of Thursday.
This is more than double what the state reported the day before on Wednesday.
Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at Emory University School of Medicine, ascribed the increase to a countrywide increase in testing capabilities.
“It’s testing. We weren’t testing enough before. Now we have testing in many commercial labs. So there’s more testing happening. As more testing happens more cases are going to be diagnosed,” del Rio said in an interview with CBS46 on Thursday evening.
The vast majority of these occurrences occur in metropolitan cities and among males who have sex with other guys.
According to Joshua O’Neal, Sexual Health Program Director at Fulton County Health Department, all 48 confirmed instances of monkeypox recorded on Wednesday were among people who identified as a male who had sex with men.
He stated that this knowledge should aid in vaccine development, but emphasized that anybody may catch this virus.
On Thursday, hundreds of people hurried to sign up for a monkeypox vaccination. Many people were turned away due to a registration blunder by the Fulton County Health Department.
According to Dr. Del Rio, the United States could receive up to 600,000 doses from Denmark as early as next week. He stated that the FDA would still need to approve the dosages before they could be disseminated widely.
“It’s basically the hunger games, right. I mean everyone is trying to get a dose, and there simply isn’t enough,” said Del Rio.
“The problem is there simply not enough vaccine out there. The demand for vaccine right now far outstrips supply in our country and globally frankly,” he added.
