“Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the first phase of its national monkeypox vaccine strategy, a critical part of its monkeypox outbreak response,” The White House said on Wednesday.
The US has announced that eligible people will be able to receive a monkeypox vaccine as cases continue to rise around the world.
President Joe Biden and his administration detailed that they’re initiating a vaccine strategy with the first doses to be given to communities and people most at risk.
“The Administration is grateful for the leadership and activism of advocates in the LGBTQI+ community who have thus far been most affected and have quickly mobilized to promote information and awareness,” said The White House.
According to the US government over 9000 doses of the vaccine have been handed out around the country but another 296,000 are set to be delivered soon with 56,000 doses to be distributed immediately.
According to WHO, the US currently has 142 confirmed cases.
In total 1.6 million doses of JYNNEOS will be available within a few months. Those in affected communities and over the age of 18 will be able to get the two-dose vaccine.
It will come as recommendation from the government that anyone who has been exposed to confirmed and presumed monkeypox cases.
“This includes those who had close physical contact with someone diagnosed with monkeypox, those who know their sexual partner was diagnosed with monkeypox, and men who have sex with men who have recently had multiple sex partners in a venue where there was known to be monkeypox or in an area where monkeypox is spreading,” said the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Testing facilities will be expanded throughout the US.
Australia has 10 confirmed cases according to the UN and at this stage there are no plans to release a vaccine.
WHO believes that considering the number of cases, the disease might have been flying under the radar for a while.
“The unexpected appearance of monkeypox and the wide geographic spread of cases indicate that the monkeypox virus might have been circulating below levels detectable by the surveillance systems and sustained human-to-human transmission might have been undetected for a period of time.”
