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…
Community
Key research issues for the fight against MPV
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…
How community activism and recovery from MPV can go together
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…
MPV and the LGBTQ community in San Francisco
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.
MPV in Puerto Rico
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…
Communities leading the fight against MPV
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…