Snohomish Health District hiring full-time monkeypox task force
EVERETT — Confirmed monkeypox cases in Snohomish County are still in single digits, but public health officials aren’t expecting things to stay that way.
The Snohomish Health District will hire more staff — a nurse, a medical assistant and two disease intervention specialists — specifically to respond to monkeypox, as authorized by the district’s board of health at a special meeting Tuesday.
At the meeting, Prevention Services Director Katie Curtis cited projections from the state Department of Health showing the potential for cases in Washington to continue to double roughly every week. Hiring a response team now will help the county “deal with the inevitable,” she said.
The Snohomish Health District confirmed a seventh case of monkeypox Tuesday, said Kari Bray, a spokesperson for the Snohomish Health District. Gay and bisexual men have been at highest risk in the current outbreak. The virus is often spread through intimate contact.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/snohomish-health-district-hiring-full-time-monkeypox-task-force/