When a case of monkeypox was reported in Nevada’s Humboldt County in August, it was the state’s first detected occurrence of the virus in a rural area. Soon, cases were found in other rural counties — Nye, Lyon, and Elko — posing another hurdle for public health systems that have been worn thin by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts say the response to the monkeypox virus in rural America may be affected by the patchy resources and bitter politics that are a legacy of the pandemic, challenges that some worry could allow sporadic infections to gain a foothold.
“Your embers turn into a forest fire really quickly,” said Brian Castrucci, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, a national nonprofit focused on public health policy. “The challenge is: Do we have the infrastructure in place in rural America for an adequate response to monkeypox, to COVID, to whatever is next on the horizon?”
