Black Michiganders got 60% of monkeypox cases, only 17% of vaccines - Detroit Free Press

Black residents have gotten just 17% of the doses administered so far in Michigan, new state health department data shows.

These are among the inequities fueled by an underfunded public health system already battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, a rising number of sexually transmitted diseases and newly stressed by the world's biggest monkeypox outbreak, Heisler said.

In those early weeks of the monkeypox outbreak, Heisler said she fielded calls from people concerned they might have the virus.

Doses of Tpoxx were "only physically available in two neighboring county health departments," said Heisler, whose STD clinic is the largest in the state.

"When the state facilitated product coming into (Michigan), that product was allocated to the (local health departments) that currently had cases.

This included city of Detroit Health Departments and clinicians in the city who were treating positive patients," said Chelsea Wuth, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Doses of the Tpoxx treatment now are available, she said, "in every Michigan local health department and select providers who have encountered a large number of Tpoxx patients.

Even though the monkeypox outbreak is beginning to wane — the rate of new cases is slowing in Michigan and nationally — Heisler was among a group of doctors from the National Coalition of STD Directors to call on Congress on Wednesday to allocate more federal funding to support the monkeypox response to ensure access to care is more equitable and to shore up a crumbling public health infrastructure.

is the disparities that are already happening in monkeypox," Heisler said.

monkeypox outbreak began in May, 265 cases have been identified in Michigan, state data shows, and 97% of the cases have been identified in men.

The state health department is working to address the disparities around monkeypox infections and access to vaccines and treatments, Wuth said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Monkeypox Vaccine Equity Pilot Program earlier this month to try to close the gap on monkeypox health disparities.

More:Monkeypox declared US public health emergency; here's where Michigan cases stand.

Eligible to apply are state and local health departments; cities already getting vaccines from the Strategic National Stockpile; tribal governments, and federally funded tribal health care facilities

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services applied to the CDC for additional doses of vaccine to host five events as part of the equity initiative

Editor's note: The state Department of Health and Human Services changed the dates of monkeypox vaccine events at Gigi's Nightclub in Detroit