Indianapolis Urban League to host monkeypox vaccination clinic

A local organization will host a monkeypox vaccination clinic Thursday.

The Indianapolis Urban League and BU Wellness Network are partnering on the event. George Wooden is the support specialist with the Special Population Support Program at the Urban League.  He said previous vaccination clinics have run smoothly and he expects the upcoming clinic to be the same.

“We made the multipurpose room available here that really people could step in the front door, get registered and go in the next room and get their vaccination with a very short wait,” Wooden said. “You didn't have to go through a whole lot of procedures to get what you needed.”

Hesitancy exists about getting the vaccine. Wooden said he understands those concerns.

“We know that some of our community are always at a second thought, sometimes or third or fourth thought about getting vaccinations so we try to put information out there for people to know exactly what they were getting the vaccination for, and be able to talk to nurses who are giving the actual vaccinations,” Wooden said.

Identification may be required to get a vaccination. The clinic will be open from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Indianapolis Urban League office, 777 Indiana Ave.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the monkeypox virus can spread to anyone through close, personal, often skin-to-skin contact, including:

• Direct contact with monkeypox rash, scabs, or body fluids from a person with monkeypox.
• Touching objects, fabrics (clothing, bedding, or towels), and surfaces that have been used by  someone with monkeypox or contact with a person's respiratory secretions.

Those infected might experience flu-like symptoms — fever, headache, sore throat or cough, exhaustion, muscle aches — before developing a rash with lesions that eventually turn white and burst. A person with monkeypox can spread it to others from the time symptoms start until the rash has fully healed and a fresh layer of skin has formed.

The monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as the one that causes smallpox. The CDC says its symptoms are similar to smallpox, but milder, and monkeypox is rarely fatal. Monkeypox is not related to chickenpox.

Contact WFYI All Things Considered newscaster and reporter Terri Dee at tdee@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @terrideeisme.