On Aug. 26, Illinois passed 1,000 monkeypox casesless than three months after the disease first appeared in the state, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Of the state's 1,005 confirmed and probable cases reported thus far, at least 807 have appeared in Chicago and 46 Chicagoans have been hospitalized because of the illness. However, public-health data also show that the notable number also comes after Chicago and Illinois saw a slowing number of new cases for two straight weeks.
"It's too early to say things look really good, but definitely some signs of slowing of cases," Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said as she shared national case counts. "We're not seeing the potentially exponential growth that we were seeing early on."
While Black and Latino people make up 22% and 31% of local monkeypox cases, respectively, CDPH data reveal they have made up just 12% and 17% of Chicagoans vaccinated through mid-August.
The state's new public-health director, Dr. Sameer Vohra, said that internal modeling had predicted that Illinois would pass 1,400 cases by mid-August. The inaccurate forecast suggests vaccination efforts and targeted messaging campaigns have worked, Vohra said, crediting partnerships with LGBTQ+-focused groups and healthcare providers like Equality Illinois and Howard Brown Health, as the disease has (so far) impacted men who have sex with men the most.
In a related matter, CBS News reported that the Biden Administration's supply of monkeypox vaccines is nearly large enough to immunize the entire high-risk population in the nation, thanks in part to a technique to administer smaller doses that has multiplied the country's supply of shots.