Monkeypox Treatment in Limited Supply as Cases Soar
-
People with monkeypox face a wide range of symptoms, from mild skin lesions to severe, debilitating pain. And experts have no reliable way yet to predict who will have the worst symptoms. There is an antiviral treatment, tecovirimat (TPOXX), but it's only available from the Strategic National Stockpile at the moment. The FDA approved tecovirimat to treat smallpox in 2018 over concerns that it might be used as a bioterrorism weapon someday. Local health departments are working with the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to request tecovirimat through a complicated, 120-page protocol. At the same time, monkeypox cases have risen to more than 11,000 worldwide, according to the CDC.
-
@torsha Many doctors learned in medical school that monkeypox is a mild disease that goes away on its own, and many people have said that about this outbreak as well. But the reality on the ground is a lot of people with this infection are really suffering, and some actually may be at risk for permanent damage and scarring