COVID, monkeypox, polio and west nile under control in NM

Health officials urge SNAP recipients to renew benefits

New Mexico’s top health officials delivered a relatively rosy outlook on the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Land of Enchantment during a press conference last Thursday (Sept. 15), and also updated reporters on monkeypox, polio and West Nile virus.

“It looks like we are getting over the BA.5 [Omicron subvariant of the coronavirus] hump at the present time,” said Dr. David Scrase, human services secretary and acting health secretary, adding that COVID-19 hospitalizations have plateaued with just 7 percent of patients on ventilation.

Several communities around the state have implemented wastewater monitoring programs for early detection of COVID-19 surges, including Farmington, Silver City, Rio Rancho and several other municipalities. Taos has not adopted a COVID-19 sewage monitoring program, which Scrase said could be expanded in the future to provide a useful tool for the early detection of a variety of diseases.

Although the Omicron variants have proven “much less lethal” than previous variants, Scrase and Dr. Laura Parajon, deputy health secretary and acting state epidemiologist, recommended that eligible individuals seek out the new COVID-19 vaccine booster shots that are now becoming widely available in New Mexico. Taos Whole Health, for example, began offering Omicron booster shot clinics to current patients on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning this week.

“I think we’re seeing some movement to what we talked about [earlier in the pandemic] to more of a flu shot-like approach to the coronavirus going forward, where hopefully we get an annual booster,” Scrase said.

In other pandemic news, Scrase donned his human services secretary hat to warn New Mexicans that a spate of renewal notices for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will begin to be issued in October. Renewal requirements for SNAP and Medicaid have been suspended during the pandemic in order to support critical access to food and healthcare programs during the public health emergency.

“But the national laws that govern SNAP are different than the ones for Medicaid,” Scrase said. “And so while Medicaid is still connected to the national public health emergency, SNAP no longer is. What that means in New Mexico — and we’ve had some extensions due to fires and floods — is that in October, 494,620 existing SNAP customers will begin a process of re-certifying. Not all of them will become due in October, but that’s a lot of people. People really need to look out for text messages and letters in the mail.”

In other infectious disease news, Parajon confirmed there have been no cases of polio in New Mexico since an outbreak was first identified in Rockland County, New York, where “the vaccination rate was 60 percent for polio.”

“New Mexico ranks No. 7 in the nation for polio vaccine coverage,” Parajon said, cautioning that “vaccinations dropped off during the pandemic” and encouraging parents to keep their children’s shots up to date. Taos County, along with Cibola County, has the state’s highest polio vaccination rate at 82 percent, while Catron County has the state’s lowest polio vaccination rate at 57 percent.

“We don’t want to have kids become paralyzed for a disease that we can prevent,” Parajon said.

West Nile virus has been identified in at least three people in New Mexico this year, and one animal, according to Parajon, who advised people to protect themselves by eliminating breeding grounds for mosquitos.

“It is most commonly spread to people by the bite of an infected mosquito,” she said. “Use mosquito repellent; wear a long-sleeved shirt and pants outside; drain anything that holds water, like buckets and pet bowls twice a week.”

Monkeypox has so far failed to gain traction in New Mexico, according to Department of Health data, which indicates that, as of Sept. 14, there have been 33 infections reported, 22 of which were in Bernalillo County and four of which were in Santa Fe County. Parajon said that, due to the small population size of the county or counties in which the other seven cases were identified, the Department of Health would not release those locations due to privacy concerns.

Nearly all monkeypox infections across the state were among men. So far, 1,749 first doses of monkeypox vaccine — which is a two dose regimen — have been administered in New Mexico, with 179 second doses distributed.

“We’ve only had one hospitalization to date and no deaths” as a result of monkeypox, Parajon said.