Texas surpasses 1,000 monkeypox cases

Texas has reached more than 1,000 monkeypox cases — 1,119 to be exact as of Friday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Of those cases, 450 have been reported in the Houston region. Harris County Public Health and the Houston Health Department are still doing what they can to stop the spread by working to get more doses of the vaccine. On Wednesday, the city and the county received a total of 10,000 additional monkeypox vaccine doses. The shipment is not what health officials expected, but they hope it will help over 5,000 people in our area.

Health officials warn the virus does not discriminate. "Remember from COVID, the virus doesn't really care. It takes advantage of an opportunity to spread and it will continue to do that," said Houston Health Department's Dr. David Persse. "So, right now it's the men who have sex with men community because that just happens to be where it started. But we really need to try to curtail the spread of the virus in our community."