Health Department urges vaccinations for mpox high-risk individuals

The Hawaiʻi Department of Health is reporting one additional case of the mpox virus in a nonresident diagnosed in Honolulu County. People with mpox, formerly known as the monkeypox virus, often get rashes or scabs. Other symptoms include fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion and headache and muscle aches.

The Honolulu case is the fifth diagnosed in Hawai‘i in 2024 and brings the total number of cases reported to Hawaiʻi Department of Health since June 3, 2022, to 51. Those at higher risk of mpox infection should consider being vaccinated with two doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine.

For vaccine information in Maui County, call Mālama I Ke Ola at 808-871-7772.

Laboratory testing of the latest case has determined this to be mpox clade II, the type that has caused the current global outbreak that began in 2022.

The Centers for Disease Control has recently been increasing monitoring of mpox clade I activity in Africa including an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While mpox clade I has not been detected in the United States or Hawaiʻi during the current outbreak, it can cause more severe illness and deaths. Some outbreaks have killed up to 10% of the people who get sick, although more recent outbreaks have had lower death rates.

While the risk to the general public in the U.S., as a result of the outbreak of mpox clade I in the DRC is very low, the JYNNEOS vaccination is the best way for those at increased risk of mpox infections to protect themselves from both mpox clade I and II.

The JYNNEOS vaccine is available statewide. Those at higher risk for mpox and who should consider being vaccinated include:

• Individuals who meet both the following criteria:

• Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, as well as transgender people who have sex with men; and
• have multiple or casual sex partners (such as through dating apps) or expect to have this mpox risk in the future.

• People who have a sex partner in any of the categories described above;
• Anyone with close contact in the last 14 days to a person with known or suspected mpox infection;
• Persons with severely compromised immune systems; and
• Anyone in any of these categories who has received only one mpox vaccine dose.

To stay protected during Pride events in Fall 2024, those at higher risk of mpox should complete the two-dose JYNNEOS vaccine series in the summer. It takes a minimum of four weeks to complete the vaccine series. 

The Department of Health and health care providers in each county continue to vaccinate high-risk individuals. Find a provider offering the vaccine by clicking here.