L.A. Blade Hosts East L.A. Monkeypox Town Hall, Sept. 22, Says AHF

Monkeypox cases increased in Los Angeles County more than 10-fold in the 2 months since the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the Los Angeles Blade, AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the City of West Hollywood presented a Community Town Hall to alert residents to the emerging threat.

Though the numbers have recently shown improvement, a myriad of issues have emerged, none more urgent than the fact that LGBTQ+ Black and Latino communities have borne the brunt of yet another public health emergency, repeating a pattern that has been seen previously in the HIV/AIDS and the COVID-19 pandemics. Of LA County's more than 1,900 Monkeypox cases, more than 52 percent have been among Latino men who have sex with men.

In late July, the CDC working with local and state health officials had identified 180,000 at-risk individuals in LA County and devised a plan to make vaccines available to them. The LA County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) initially was able to vaccinate at County-operated clinic locations and once adequately supplied was able to engage additional community resources and private healthcare foundations and providers. According to the LACDPH Monkeypox Dashboard, as of September 14, 52,137 first doses have been administered

The Blade alongside over a dozen community partners are hosting an urgent and timely special Monkeypox Community Town Hall to answer questions and provide medical and needed information by a panel of experts on Thursday, September 22 from 6 PM ? 8:30PM (PT), on the campus of the East Los Angeles Community College and simultaneously via a variety of digital social media platforms.

This town hall is a much-needed opportunity to create new urgency about the need to be vaccinated, a unified approach to containment and more direct discussions about prevention. The panelists include medical experts, highly respected doctors with LADPH and respected members of the LGBTQ+ community and local healthcare related agencies that deliver medical care to the community.

Los Angeles Blade Publisher Troy Masters says, "The monkeypox epidemic is not over and we have a lot of work to do to ensure our affected communities take action to prevent transmission and embrace vaccination. This town hall will help focus attention on transmission and the unique needs of the Latino community to ensure prevention and vaccination messages successfully reach every segment of our at-risk community."

It is critical to continue hosting monkeypox informative sessions in multiple languages ? this is especially important given Latino residents have the highest cases of any community in LA County. There is still a lot of misinformation out there regarding monkeypox and I am committed to doing everything I can to protect our most impacted residents from the discrimination and stigma that this virus may bring," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, representing the First District.

1. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health: Alicia H. Chang, MD, MS
2. Latino Coalition for a Healthy California: Dr. Jeffrey Reynoso, Executive Director
3. Trans Latina Coalition: Alexandra Magallon, Coordinator of Policy and Community Engagement
4. Greg Wilson, Senior Manager, In The Meantime Men's Group
5. AIDS Healthcare Foundation: Pedro Prieto, Senior Program Manager, Mobile Testing
6. St. John's Community Health: Mario Chavez, Director of Government Affairs and Community Relations
7. ViaCare: Alexis Loya, LGBTQ Programs Manager.
8. AltaMed Health Services: Dr. Sherrill R. Brown, MD, Medical Director, Infection Prevention
9. Clinica Bienestar: Mayra A. Hernandez, ACSW, MSW (she/ella), Clinic Manager
10. Wall Las Memorias: Jesus Leija Casas, Health Educator and Outreach Worker

For Updates Related to the Monkeypox Town Hall:
Visit www.losangelesblade.com/monkeypox Follow @losangelesblade on Twitter and Facebook; Subscribe to Email Alerts at [email protected]

The Los Angeles Blade has partnered with more than a dozen local community, LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS nonprofit groups to host the Special Town Hall: AIDS Healthcare Foundation, California Community Foundation, St. John's Community Health, ViaCare, Bienestar, LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis, Los Angeles Community Colleges District, East Los Angeles Community College, Wall La Memorias, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, JYNNEOS (the preventive vaccine from Bavarian Nordic), California Libraries, Ariadne Getty Foundation, Equality California, APLA, Grindr, TransLatin@ Coalition, APAIT, Latino Equality Alliance, In The Meantime Men's Group, the Los Angeles Times, Telemundo 52, Adalante Magazine, are among the sponsors.

About Los Angeles Blade

The Los Angeles Blade is LA's largest LGBTQ+ media outlet and the nation's most visited LGBTQ+ newspaper website. The newspaper is a partner publication of the Washington Blade (D.C.) and is the only LGBTQ+ media outlet member of the White House Press Corps. Troy Masters is Publisher of the Los Angeles Blade and Brody Levesque is Editor.

About East Los Angeles Community College (ELAC)

ELAC is a public community college in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and member of the Los Angeles Community College District. With fourteen communities comprising its primary service area and an enrollment of 35,403 students, ELAC has the largest student body campus by enrollment in the state of California as of 2018. It was located in northeastern East Los Angeles before that part of unincorporated East Los Angeles was annexed by Monterey Park in the early 1970s. The college uses a semester-based academic year. The highest degree offered at East Los Angeles College is an associate degree. ELAC offers non-degree certificates in 27 different fields.

For reporters and members of the media seeking additional information about the town hall or about the Los Angeles Blade, please contact Troy Masters, Publisher, at [email protected] or by cell (917) 406-1619.

As an in-person indoor event, use of masks is highly recommended. ELAC follows guidelines established by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which masks are strongly recommended indoors or in crowded outdoor settings for people at high risk of severe illness, or who live with someone who is at high risk. Masks that provide the best protection against COVID-19 should be worn. Examples include a well-fitting respirator (e.g., N95, KN95) or a double mask (a well-fitting cloth mask over a medical mask).

The event is open to the press and public but you must register here to attend:
To register on the Event Brite page, click here.