Men’s Health Foundation Podcast Episode 7 Transcript

Mpox: Will Vaccines Hold Up Against the Global Health Emergency?

David: Thanks for tuning in to the Men’s Health Foundation podcast. Today I'm here with Marc and our new guest today, Jorell Blanco, a registered nurse here at Men’s Health Foundation. Jorell, thanks so much for joining us.

Jorell: Hello. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be invited onto this podcast. Super excited.

David: Oh, we're so excited you're here. You know, we were talking recently about the recent news from the World Health Organization of the global health emergency announced with this new update on mpox worldwide. So we're really interested in hearing an update from you on, you know, how things have been going with mpox here in Los Angeles and Men’s Health Foundation and any information you can share with our listeners as far as what to look out for with this, with this new information and what it means for them.

And maybe a great way to get started with that is to, you know, first let listeners know a little bit more about you so they can know the source that they're getting this from. We understand you've been a registered nurse for more than 12 years now, you've had previous experience at Kaiser, at Cedars-Sinai, and we also heard that you started as a patient of Men’s Health Foundation at some point. Is that right?

Jorell: That's right. Yes. several years ago, I started off as a patient here at Mental Health Foundation. love the care that I received. It's the first time that I have been a part of an LGBTQ-focused clinic. So when I was a patient here, it sort of like, just like, opened this kind of like, Pandora's box of, like, just kind of like a whole new kind of like, way of medicine. Yeah, it's, it's been great.

David: Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. So getting into our topic of this episode for today, talking about mpox, formerly at one point known as monkeypox, now referred to, medically, as mpox, we want to just make sure that any listeners who aren't yet familiar with this or need a refresher, maybe, since I know there was a big outbreak in 2022 in the United States, and then maybe it's, you know, I think the conversation around mpox access, maybe subsided a bit since then.

Could you just give us an introduction as far as what it is, what is mpox and how it’s spread?

Jorell: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So mpox or monkeypox? It's definitely been kind of coming up again in news and world news and essentially mpox is a viral condition that is spread through, and mainly through skin to skin contact and then through, contact with, with objects or items that have been exposed to mpox and then, human to animal contact, which is probably a very kind of like rare situation to happen here in West Hollywood.

There is two, what they call clades or groups of mpox. So the outbreak that we had in 2022 here in the US and many other countries during that time was from clade two or group two. So the current outbreak that's happening in Central Africa, in East Africa, is from clade one or group one and right now there is no current diagnosed cases of group one or clade one here in the US at this time.

David: All right. Okay. Big distinction. You know, I'd be curious to ask if I could, off the bat, what are some of the differences between this group two and group one? Is one sort of more contagious or is more severe in a way? Just so folks can kind of understand, you know, what makes these different other than where the outbreaks are happening.

Jorell: Yeah, absolutely. So, so group one and group two come from the same kind of like genus or family called orthopox. So, it is believed that group one is a more severe, more contagious mpox, but those studies are coming from areas that currently are endemic, you know, to that country. So these studies are coming from, from Central Africa, since these countries have less resources. They believe that if, and knock on wood, hopefully it never does, come over to us, it would probably be less severe just because we have more resources with addressing and preventing the outbreaks.

One thing to note as well, too, is that the current mpox vaccine, or, what the brand name is JYNNEOS actually works for both group one and two. So if you are fully vaccinated with the two doses, then you would be covered for both.

David: Great. Okay. So that's good to know too. So when folks are seeing the news about what's going on in Central and East Africa, if they're getting their vaccine here in the U.S, they don't need a different type of vaccine to be protected against this new outbreak happening internationally.

Jorell: Absolutely.

David: Great. Great. Really good to know. One of the things I want to definitely, talk about is understanding if there are specific communities that have been disproportionately affected. Certainly, I remember 2022 with the outbreak that happened in the U.S., it seemed like there were a lot of folks in the gay community on social media who were posting about mpox, maybe posting about being at risk or having, you know, have symptoms of the virus. So I'd love to talk about if there are communities that we can say from a medical perspective are disproportionately affected, maybe, and if that includes the LGBTQ+ community.

Jorell: Yeah, absolutely. So the at-risk group would be for gay, bisexual, men who have sex with men, transgender, or non-binary people who have in the past six months had an either new diagnosis of an STI, more than one sex partner, sex at a commercial sex venue, or sex in association with a large public event in a geographic area.

So essentially that's sort of like, if you are going to, like, a rave or a large party, where there's sort of like a lot of, kind of skin to skin bumping and grinding happening. So that set of groups would be eligible because they are most at risk for the transmission of mpox. And even if you do not fall in that category but you have exposure then you would also be eligible for the vaccine.

David: I'm under the impression that if they already have symptoms, if they have mpox, then would an mpox vaccine be something that they could still benefit from in the future, or what does that look like for them?

Jorell: Yeah. So if one is not vaccinated and actually has mpox then they technically don't need to be vaccinated anymore because it's almost like chicken pox where you have the immunity already. So, the actual kind of, like, disease, the body already kind of like, has created like these immunities to but if one is having early signs of this and have not received the vaccine, you can get the vaccine. So then it would fall under sort of like the post-exposure versus like the pre-exposure for the vaccine.

One thing I did want to point out if any of our viewers does have one vaccine and you are past the four week period, you are definitely still encouraged to get the second dose of the mpox. Right now a booster beyond the two doses, are not necessarily recommended.

David: Okay.

Jorell: Yeah, you get the two doses and it's about an 86 to 80% effectivity rate.

David: All right, that's interesting that you bring that up because I was going to ask, you know, how someone should navigate situations after they've been vaccinated if they feel like they can come into contact with, you know, the virus and you know how confident they should feel about, you know, their risk level or lack thereof at that point.

Jorell: Yeah, absolutely. So, being fully vaccinated would be defined as having the two doses four weeks apart and then waiting two weeks after the second vaccine as being fully vaccinated to get the full effectivities. So if you're going to do anything wild and crazy, make sure you get the two doses first, wait two weeks afterwards, and then you're good to go.

David: Good. Great.

Marc: Speaking of, you know, sexual activity and things like that, are there any precautions that people can take to protect themselves even if they, let's say they are vaccinated, got the two doses, waited two weeks, are there any extra precautions maybe that people can use in these sorts of cases where they are having sexual encounters?

Jorell: Yeah, absolutely. If you are visually seeing someone with a rash or like, vesicles, kind of like steer clear from that area. Having that contact with the vesicles is kind of like where the mode of transmission is. You know, it sounds logical, but sometimes, you know, you have to just kind of be like, reminded of that.

And then also good hand-washing, you know. It's important as well to and just, kind of minimizing the spread to kind of like the kind of other areas of the body.

David: Now, one thing we talked about earlier was the idea that you know, this is something that you could spread through touching an object that someone who actively has mpox has you know, recently come into contact with. How risky is that?

Jorell: It’s not like just because someone just like, touched one thing, that then like, and then you touch it right afterwards that you can contract mpox. I think the, the kind of contact, transmission would be sort of like if, it's someone who is, who has contracted mpox and let's just say, you get in their bed and, maybe, you slept in it, and now you're like, kind of like rolling around in their bed. So then you're really kind of like immersing yourself, with this, or maybe even, using, like someone else's, like, sex toys or something like that, where there's sort of like aggressive, kind of like…

David: Just like a lot of skin contact.

Jorell: Exactly. Yeah.

David: Okay. Well, that helps maybe get a clearer sense of kind of the risk there. One of the things I also wanted to ask is, what are some of the other groups that, you know, have specific, you know, concerns or needs as it relates to navigating this mpox outbreak? One of the things that comes to mind is, folks who are immunocompromised, and what the experience is like for them and also for folks living with HIV. How, you know, navigating this inbox outbreak might be, there might be some special considerations there.

Jorell: Yeah, absolutely. So in the kind of like study or kind of breakdown of those who have been infected with mpox that they're kind of like disproportionately is, more people, with HIV, who has had mpox. But, it is still currently being, studied where it's not— there's no true kind of like linkage that if you have HIV that you are more prone to have mpox.

But, one thing that is known is that if, one does have, advanced HIV or immunocompromised, then you will be hit harder with the mpox virus. So that means that the severity of the symptoms would be more and then, of course, like on the very far end, possible death. But, right now the linkage of HIV to mpox there's no direct link. It's really more if you have an advanced immunocompromised state.

David: Thank you. That makes sense.

Marc: So now that we've gone over the vaccine and the outbreak and provided tips for people to better protect themselves, looking beyond the current outbreak into the future, do you foresee, mpox being sort of something that we see more often maybe every year, sort of like a flu season or things like that, or what do you envision the future for mpox outbreaks looks like?

Jorell: I think the World Health Organization and CDC thinks that it is going to be sort of not fully eradicated. It's going to be sort of like this, like continuation, which is why it's very important that everyone does get vaccinated and get those two doses to kind of minimize its spread. And then I think what will happen is that there will be kind of like future kind of like, resurgences or, like, outbreaks, maybe like in a certain kind of like group or region.

And then, so that's why it's going to be important for public health and local community-based clinics to convene routinely and continuously educate all our members and to kind of like reinforce vaccinations and these, like, just tips for prevention.

David: Thank you, Jorell. One thing I want to make sure that we emphasize, again, for folks listening, some resources for making an appointment to get an mpox vaccine. There's, of course, our site at Men's Health Foundation, which is “menshealthfound” like “lost and found,” one word. menshealthfound.org. There's also, if you're, you know, looking for sites elsewhere in California, maybe a little more distant than West Hollywood or South LA, you can go to myturna.ca.gov.

One of the things I wanted to ask you is, is there anything we haven't covered that you think we should really address as we, you know, wrap up this conversation on mpox today?

Jorell: This is definitely sensitive, kind of like information and, you know, something kind of like new and personal to yourself. But for us, this is kind of like why we are here. And it's a safe space for everyone to, come and seek help. If you have any questions, nothing is, inappropriate or off topic. If we don't have the answer then we’ll definitely find a way to get that.

David: Absolutely. Thank you, Jorell. Thank you for everything you're doing here at Men’s Health Foundation. Thanks for joining us.

Jorell: Thank you.