Vaccine availability to those at risk for contracting monkeypox remains limited, but Allegheny County health leaders say they are working on a plan to expand eligibility as supply increases.

Twenty cases of the virus have been confirmed in the county. Vaccines are being offered to people who have had a high-risk exposure to someone confirmed to be infected. Eligibility is being determined on a case-by-case basis.

Vaccination can prevent disease if it’s given within four days of exposure.

Health officials have stressed that monkeypox is not the same type of threat as covid-19 has been. It is much less transmissible and requires much closer physical contact in order to spread.

“There are different means that it can be passed from person to person. Right now it seems most of the cases that we’re identifying in the U.S. are through sex and cuddling,” said Dr. Barbara Nightingale, Allegheny County’s deputy director of clinical services.

She noted that the virus can be passed through any type of close contact with the lesions, sores, scabs or body fluids of someone who is infected. Linens such as bedding and clothing that are used by someone with the virus can also spread infection.

Monkeypox has, for the most part, been circulating slowly, Nightingale said.

“That’s just the nature of the time that it takes for someone to get infected with it,” she said.

Dr. Debra Bogen, director of the county health department, stressed that testing still remains key to keeping the outbreak from growing, though testing cannot be done until someone has developed a rash or lesions.

Many of the issues faced when covid began to spread are not hurdles faced with monkeypox. For one, it is not a novel virus. It has been circulating in certain African countries – with stray cases outside of those countries, usually among travelers – since the 1950s.

The slow testing process and lack of testing supplies made identifying and containing covid cases difficult – something that is not an issue with the monkeypox outbreak.

“If you have a rash that looks weird, call your primary care providers and have them have a look at it,” Nightingale said.

The lesions associated with monkeypox can be painful, but the virus is otherwise much less lethal, particularly the strain circulating in the United States, Nightingale said. The lesions can develop in sensitive areas such as the eyes, but such instances are rare, she said.

The county’s Public Health Clinic offers testing without appointments from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and from noon to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

The following community health care providers are offering the vaccine on a case-by-case basis:

Central Outreach Wellness Center,127 Anderson St., Suite 101, Pittsburgh 15212. Allies for Health + Wellbeing, 5913 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh 15206. Metro Community Health Center, 1789 S Braddock Ave. #410, Pittsburgh 15218. AHN Positive Health Clinic (only vaccinating current patients), 1307 Federal St., Pittsburgh 15212.

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