Thousands of monkeypox vaccines are being distributed across the US due to a rising number of cases of the disease.
Those most at risk and communities with the highest number of cases will be prioritised, with 56,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine set to be sent to the areas with highest rates of transmission. The US Department of Health and Human Services will send out another 240,000 doses over the next four weeks.
There will be more to follow in the the summer and autumn. Officials are hoping that 1.6million doses will be distributed in total.
The states with the highest rate of transmission are California, New York, Illinois and Florida along with Washington DC, according to statistics for the Center for Disease Control and prevention (CDC). They are prioritising vaccines for those who have been in close contact, including sexual contact with someone who has been diagnosed with the virus.
Vaccines will also be available to men who have had sex with other men who have reported having multiple sexual partners at a venue or party where the virus is known to have spread. Most of the confirmed monkeypox cases have been among men who have had sex with other men in the US and across the globe.
CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Tuesday: “We are recommending vaccines be provided to both people with known monkeypox exposures who are contacted by public health. And also to those people who’ve been recently exposed to monkeypox.”
Despite the rising number of cases in the US, the White House Covid-19 coordinator Dr Ashish Jha believes the outbreak can be contained. He said: “Monkeypox is not novel, we as a global community have known about it for decades.
“We know how it spreads, we have tests that help identify people who are infected. We have vaccines that are highly effective against it.”
Meanwhile, David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, argued that the US were already fighting a losing battle. He said: “We’ve already lost control of this outbreak – we think there’s many more cases, and we need to act now to get control of this outbreak.”
