More than 3,200 people are set to join NMAC and HIV colleagues from across the country at the upcoming U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS, which opens in Puerto Rico on Saturday. USCHA represents the most important opportunity yet for the HIV community to learn, share information and strategize together about the MPV outbreak. The conference will include two institutes specifically focused on MPV – one sponsored by the Associated Nurses in…
New MPV diagnoses appear to have stabilized but at a level notably lower than in August: As of September 30, 25,851 people in the U.S. had been diagnosed with MPV. Since early August, the number of new MPV diagnoses has declined nationally, although new diagnoses appear to have stabilized over the last two weeks. California alone accounts for 1 in 5 cumultative MPV diagnoses, followed by New York, Florida and…
More people have been diagnosed with MPV in New York City than in any other city in the country. With people of color accounting for more than three quarters of MPV cases in New York City, the outbreak has had especially devastating effects in the city’s neighborhoods of color. That includes Harlem, where Black and Latinx people account for three out of four residents. Harlem United, a federally qualified health…
As you may have seen in NMAC Executive Director Paul Kawata’s newsletter earlier this week, USCHA in Puerto Rico is a go for October. Following Hurricane Fiona left most of Puerto Rico without electricity, NMAC left it up to the host committee, which unanimously voted to go ahead with the conference. The host committee determined that now is the time for NMAC and the broader HIV community to support communities…
MPV cases continue a slow decline, but now is no time for complacency: As of September 23, 24,826 people had been diagnosed with MPV in the U.S. The national decline is mirrored in data from several states and cities, including Florida and Georgia. Over the last week, the weekly number of new diagnoses appears to have stabilized, underscoring the need to avoid complacency. The level of new diagnoses remains too…
Greg Millett, vice president and director of public policy for amfAR, is heartened by recent declines in new MPV diagnoses. But he cautions that we aren’t out of the woods in the effort to bring MPV under control. Greg is especially concerned about the substantial racial and ethnic disparities in MPV diagnoses and in access to MPV testing, treatment and vaccination. Unless these trends are reversed, MPV, like HIV, could…
Do you have a story you’d like to share with NMAC and our wider community about MPV? Have you had MPV or have you gotten the vaccine? Are you a gay/bisexual man who is trying to reduce his risk for getting MPV? Are you a provider who is working to help gay/bisexual men of color with information and assistance in getting the services they need? We’re inviting you to make…
Welcome declines in MPV diagnoses obscure spikes in parts of the U.S.: As of September 16, 23,499 people had been diagnosed with MPV in the U.S. Since early August, MPV diagnoses have fallen by 40% nationally. In Georgia, one of the states most affected by MPV, new diagnoses fell by 38% in one week. However, CDC notes that new diagnoses are still on the rise in parts of the U.S….
Fresh on the heels of the greatest public health crisis in a century, the U.S. is facing another major public health emergency with the outbreak of monkeypox virus (MPV).
‘A project like this is almost a double-edged sword’: A conversation with the creatives who are making the culture — and questioning it, too.
U.S. health officials are warning against overuse of the lone drug available to treat monkeypox, or MPX, saying that even a small mutation in the virus that causes the disease could render the pills ineffective.
Antonius Minniefield, a 26-year-old same-gender loving man who lives in Atlanta, has been an HIV advocate since he was diagnosed with HIV at age 12, working for years as an HIV peer counselor. When he was diagnosed with MPV in July, he put his HIV advocacy skills to use to help others get the information and services they needed. When Antonius first noted a skin discoloration in early July, he…
The upcoming U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS, in San Juan October 8-11, will provide the national HIV community with the greatest opportunity yet to learn and strategize together about MPV. At USCHA, an institute will enable community members and providers to learn about MPV, including about the resources that are available on MPV testing, treatment and vaccination. A town hall meeting will allow community members to strategize together about how best…
MPV cases continue their modest decline: Nationally, 21,894 people had been diagnosed with MPV in the U.S. as of September 9. New MPV diagnoses have continued to trend downwards for the U.S. as a whole, although epidemic trends vary around the country, with some states and cities seeing faster declines than elsewhere. MPV cases are still high and are affecting every part of the country: High rates of MPV are…
Five of the nation’s leading organizations focused on ending the HIV, STD, and hepatitis epidemics – AIDS United, NASTAD, the National Coalition of STD Directors, NMAC, and The AIDS Institute – will host a Town Hall on Monkeypox at the 2022 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS. This event will be livestreamed on Facebook.
When AIDS was first recognized in the early 1980s, San Francisco quickly emerged as an epicenter. Forty years later, San Francisco is at the center of another health crisis affected gay/bisexual men – MPV. Although San Francisco accounts for less than 0.3% of the U.S. population, its 723 cases make up 3.6% of all people nationwide who have been diagnosed with MPV.
Atlanta Black Pride this past weekend was the first of the community events prioritized by CDC for enhanced MPV outreach. During Atlanta Black Pride, community-based organizations partnered with the local health department to bring MPV vaccination to the community in downtown, midtown and beyond.
MPV diagnoses have modestly declined. As of September 2, 19,962 people had been diagnosed with MPV in the U.S. Nationally, the number of people newly diagnosed with MPV appears to have slightly declined.
As of August 29, 107 people had been diagnosed with MPV in Puerto Rico, and cases appear to be trending sharply upwards. Damián Cabrera-Candelaria, a gay man living in San Juan, is NMAC’s treatment program manager. Damián became involved in LGBTQI+ advocacy while he was a university student. Like many other Puerto Ricans, Damián was shaken by a brutal murder of a gay man in 2009, and he has devoted…
Building Healthy Online Communities has launched https://mpoxvaxmap.org/, providing information to people in the U.S. and Puerto Rico about where they can get the MPV vaccine. The project is also mobilizing volunteers to vet information in order to ensure the most accurate information is available to the communities most affected by MPV. The gay leather community is responding to MPV. Daniel Driffin, who is working with NMAC to influence federal policy…
Given the disproportionate impact of MPV in communities of color, efforts to address this national emergency must elevate the voices of Black and Latinx gay/bisexual men. To help NMAC serve as the coordinating center for the national MPV policy response, Daniel Driffin has agreed to spearhead advocacy with the White House and other arms of the federal government. A Black gay man living with HIV in Atlanta, Daniel co-founded THRIVE…
This is the first of what will be a weekly NMAC newsletter on the latest developments in the monkeypox (MPV) epidemic. Production of this newsletter is supported by a grant from Gilead Sciences to NMAC to serve as the coordinating center for the policy response to MPV. These newsletters are intended for service providers, people living with or at risk of MPV, and policymakers at the federal, state and local…