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Pima County considered one of Arizona's three "hubs" for the monkeypox virus

By: Faith Abercrombie

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TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Pima County Health Department held a public meeting for all questions regarding monkeypox on Wednesday.

Monkeypox is classified as an orthopoxvirus and the CDC has confirmed 10,392 cases in the country.

Arizona currently has 149 cases and Pima County has 10 of them as of August 10.

New York has the most confirmed cases with more than 2,000.

Arizona categorized three counties as “monkeypox hubs.”

“There are hubs for monkeypox, Coconino County which is Flagstaff, Maricopa County obviously Phoenix and Pima County. We are the hub for the southern region of Arizona,” said Pima County Public Health Director, Theresa Culle.

Pima County has received about 1,000 vaccines against the virus.

“We do expect to receive more hopefully August 15 and another dose by the end of the month,” said Culle.

The CDC recently announced that they want to rework how much of the drug is used for each vaccination.

This past week, the Pima County Health Department said 398 people were vaccinated against the virus.

The county is using a survey to identify people as a candidate for the vaccine.

“We do have vaccinations available if people meet the criteria for that,” said Culle.

“If there is known exposure to a patient that has monkeypox, at that point you’re called a contact. People may recall that from the Covid pandemic,” Culle added.

The panel of medical professionals and disease specialists said contact tracing is a key part to stop the spread.

“In the case investigation, we try to connect dots if we can know how the person got the disease,” said Epidemiologist, Mariana Singletary.

The county’s health department will be posting updates on the virus on their website.

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Faith Abercrombie is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before coming to KGUN, Faith worked as a videographer for the Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation and as a reporter and producer on the youth suicide documentary, "Life is..." on Arizona PBS.
Share your story ideas with Faith by emailing faith.abercrombie@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.

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