With students returning to campuses in just a couple of weeks, universities and colleges across the state are beginning to pull from COVID-19 response plans to prepare for the spreading monkeypox virus, which could pose a unique risk to students because they live in close quarters and often have heightened sexual contact, experts say.
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“We have to be concerned about monkeypox on college campuses,” said Dr. Emily Landon, University of Chicago Medicine’s executive director for infection prevention and control. “Monkeypox spreads through close, physical contact, and there’s a lot of social and sexual networks in colleges.”
A large majority of the 556 total monkeypox cases Chicago reported Monday have been identified in men who have sex with men, Chicago Department of Public Health data shows.
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The Illinois Department of Public Health on Monday reported 672 cases across the state.
Monkeypox has spread aggressively among men who have sex with men in part because they are often connected to tight sexual networks, but there’s no biological reason why gay and bisexual men have been hit hardest and nothing to stop the disease from spreading more aggressively within other populations, Landon said.
Well-known bugs like meningitis and mononucleosis already spread on campuses through close contact. The monkeypox virus won’t discriminate when students start touching.
“Any close contact, skin-to-skin, prolonged contact, even things like making out with people can lead to monkeypox transmission,” she said.
While the city and state’s public health departments do not have monkeypox guidance of colleges and universities publicly available, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does have information for congregate living settings, such as college dorms.
CDPH officials did not respond Monday when asked via email if the department was working on such guidance or had seen monkeypox cases among students.
The University of Illinois has been meeting weekly with local health authorities and providers to monitor the virus’s spread throughout Champaign County, spokesperson Chantelle Thompson said. The state’s flagship university is working with campus groups, local bars and fraternities to get monkeypox messaging out, she said.
“The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign wants to ensure we are keeping those currently most at risk for monkeypox (MPV) informed, without stigmatizing them or letting others become complacent,” spokesperson Chantelle Thompson said.
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No cases have been confirmed yet, and isolation for monkeypox-positive students and close contacts will be assessed as cases arise, Thompson said.
“Plans are in place to scale (an) MPV response should it become necessary,” she added.
Western Illinois University medical officers are working with local health officials to develop protocols based on state guidelines, spokesperson Darcie Shinberger said. The university will lean on COVID-19 protocols to prepare for a potential outbreak, she added.
Columbia College will use coronavirus guidelines to respond to monkeypox, spokesperson Lambrini Lukidis told the Tribune.
There are no plans to test for monkeypox or provide the difficult to acquire monkeypox vaccines on campus yet, but the college is already sharing information with all students on identifying and stopping the spread of the virus, Lukidis said.
Columbia hasn’t yet confirmed any cases, she added.
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“For now, I think on monkeypox, we would be taking the lead from local health authorities in terms of what to do and where somebody would isolate,” Lukidis said.
Illinois State University has relied on the state health department’s public information, spokesperson Eric Jome said.
“It is encouraging to see that there’s mobilization at the state level and at the federal level. As these things progress, more resources are going to become available, and we would obviously be working with our local health departments if the case arose,” he said.
When the semester starts in a couple of weeks, there will be a lot more students on campus, Jome said. The university will work to get information out as students get back to class.
“We’re watching this. If there’s anything COVID has taught us, it’s just to be flexible and that things may change,” he said.
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Landon said colleges need to make sure that they have systems in place to share information about the virus, and they also need to think about how to make monkeypox testing and care for positive students accessible given the stigma and weekslong quarantines associated with the disease.
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Howard Brown Health Center clinicians have already detected monkeypox among university students in Hyde Park, the Hyde Park Herald reported.
“If colleges don’t make it easy for students to get treatment for monkeypox, they may not go and get it,” Landon said. While plans need to be ready and information shared with students, universities and students shouldn’t “freak out” about the disease, she added.
Public points of contact, like sharing toilets, do not seem to be leading to monkeypox spread, Landon said. Across Illinois and Chicago, housemates who don’t have sexual contact do not seem to be passing on the virus to one another, meaning dorm rooms shouldn’t currently pose a major risk, she added.
Landon offered advice for students: With fist-bumps and careful sex practices, “be really careful about who you share your skin with.”
Twitter @jakesheridan_
