A University of Pittsburgh student tested positive for monkeypox last week, according to the school's associate dean for student wellness.
While local and national data show that monkeypox cases seem to have hit a plateau, western Pennsylvania college campuses will likely see additional infections throughout the fall semester.
Dr. Barbara Nightingale, the deputy director of clinical services at Allegheny County Health Department, notes that monkeypox started showing up in the United States just as the 2022 spring semester ended. "So there is a little bit of unknown, and that makes all of us uncomfortable."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that a person isolates for two to four weeks after testing positive for monkeypox. Therefore, college students with the virus should only attend classes remotely; those living in dorms will require separate accommodations.
Nightingale notes that, unlike COVID-19, living in dormitories and other congregate settings does not put someone at heightened risk for monkeypox.
An infected person could potentially spread monkeypox to someone else through respiratory transmission, but this is rare and requires several hours of exposure within a relatively small space. Therefore, Pitt infectious disease expert Dr. Ken Ho anticipates that stopping monkeypox outbreaks from spreading uncontrolled across college campuses will be possible.
"We have the advantages of having, you know, prophylactic vaccines, of having good testing that can come back quickly," said Ho. "Also, monkeypox isn't anywhere near as contagious as COVID-19."
Education about how monkeypox transmits is vital. The lion's share of cases has been among men who have sex with men, so women and heterosexual men might falsely assume they're not at risk.
Another challenge is explaining that while monkeypox often spreads between sexual partners, it is not an STD; therefore, condom use offers little protection. This virus most often transmits through the kind of skin-to-skin contact that occurs during cuddling, kissing or sex. So, a better harm reduction strategy is for people to limit their number of sexual partners.
According to CDC case data that includes information on age, 16- to 25-year-olds comprise only about 10% of monkeypox cases in the U.S. However, adolescents and young adults make up more significant portions of gonorrhea and chlamydia cases, as well as new infections of HIV. Because the same behaviors that transmit STDs also spread monkeypox, the demographics for the latter may shift over time.
Or, the threat that monkeypox poses may decrease over time since it is harder to transmit and relatively easy to treat. As the head of a medical clinic that caters to the LGBTQ community, Dr. Stacy Lane said she's hopeful "this thing could fizzle out if we can get ahead of it."
For this to happen, she says patients need easy access to the vaccine and to know if they're at risk.
