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For the first time, a person within Onondaga County has tested positive for monkeypox, County Executive Ryan McMahon announced in a press conference Wednesday.

The county received the positive lab test Tuesday night, McMahon said. The health department has since notified each person who has had direct contact with the individual who tested positive, he continued.

The individual who tested positive has been isolated, McMahon said, and poses no threat to the community at large. All individuals who have had exposure are also in isolation.

Any urgent care location, in addition to a person’s own doctor, can test for monkeypox, said Stacy Fontana, a nurse practitioner in the health department, at the press conference. Symptoms manifest mainly as blisters, she said.

The county does not consider testing availability to be an issue as of now, McMahon added.

Prior to the first reported case, Onondaga County held a vaccine clinic for high-risk individuals on Wednesday. The county received 600 doses of the vaccine, though officials expect to receive a larger number of doses following the reported case, McMahon said.

“​​If you have any symptoms at all … contact your doctor or come into the local health department clinic, and we can screen you, especially if you have any sores that are unexplained,” Fontana said.

Currently, individuals must fall into the group of being gay, bisexual, a man who has sex with men, transgender, gender nonconforming or gender nonbinary in order to be eligible for the vaccine in New York state. Individuals must also be 18 years or older, and have had multiple or anonymous sex partners within the last 14 days.

Onondaga County is currently strict with eligibility because of the limited number of doses available, McMahon said. County officials are working closely with the New York State Department of Health on best practices with regard to vaccine eligibility, he continued.

With the case in Onondaga County, the parameters of the vaccine’s eligibility may expand, Fontana said. Fontana and McMahon did not give any information on the risk level of the individual who tested positive, though Fontana said they are recovering well.

Because monkeypox is currently affecting a specific population, McMahon said the county intends to remain focused on those groups. However, public health officials are prepared to change their approach if facts on the ground change, the county executive said.

Experts have been quick to clarify that despite the disproportionate infectivity, people should not consider monkeypox a “gay disease.”

“While we may be seeing clusters primarily in certain groups of people, viruses do not discriminate by race, by religion, or by sexual orientation,” Boghuma Titanji, a physician and clinical researcher at Emory College, told NPR.

In New York City, the current epicenter of monkeypox, the city’s department of health has reported that 70% of those with Monkeypox are “LGBQ+” as of 10 a.m. on Aug. 11.

“Now we have (had our first case) and so we’re here talking about it and being transparent about it,” McMahon said. “And we feel comfortable in the diligence that’s been done, and we’ll keep people briefed on that.”

Published on August 11, 2022 at 5:30 pm

Contact Jana: jlseal@syr.edu | @JanaLoSeal