Monkeypox Antiviral Overuse Could Spur Mutations, Warns FDA
The Food and Drug Administration is warning doctors to be judicious in prescribing tecovirimat, or Tpoxx, to avoid forcing the virus to mutate. Separate reports say the number of Black men diagnosed with monkeypox is rising. And an Iowa nurse was fired for improper vaccine shots.
CBS News:
FDA Warns Monkeypox Could Mutate If Antiviral Drug Is Overused
The monkeypox virus is only one mutation away from evading a key antiviral drug being used to treat at-risk patients, federal health officials are now warning — and they're urging doctors to be "judicious" in prescribing the sought-after treatment. (Tin, 9/14)
Fortune:
White Men Initially Suffered The Highest Number Of Monkeypox Cases In The U.S. Not Anymore
The number of Black men in the U.S. diagnosed with monkeypox is growing—and vaccines aren’t keeping up. At the beginning of the global outbreak, declared in May, the vast majority of U.S. patients—75%—were white. That share has slowly dropped over the course of the outbreak and now sits at around 25%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Prater, 9/14)
Des Moines Register:
Iowa Nurse Fired After Improperly Administering Monkeypox Vaccine
The county health department said Cheryl Sondall, an on-call nurse who had worked for the department for several years, chose not to follow protocol when she administered the vaccine to five patients during a clinic last week. Nola Aigner Davis, the department spokesperson, said the vaccine was supposed to be administered intradermally, or between the layers of the skin. Instead, the shots were given subcutaneously, or in the fatty tissue under the skin. (Ramm, 9/14)
A Senate committee met Wednesday to discuss the monkeypox response —
CIDRAP:
CDC Head Says Monkeypox Slowing In US
Today the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee met for the first time to address the federal response to the US monkeypox outbreak, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, addressed the rocky federal start of outbreak response but noted that cases are now declining. She also highlighted CDC outreach at a time when the disease was brand new to most frontline clinicians. (Soucheray, 9/14)
PBS NewsHour:
WATCH: Senate Committee Hearing On Monkeypox With CDC’s Rochelle Walensky, Anthony Fauci
The Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions committee held a hearing Wednesday with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. (9/14)
