To curb the spread and spread of monkeypox, the Biden administration announced an "enhanced national vaccination strategy".
On Tuesday, federal officials in top positions, including Dr. Rochelle Wilensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Ashish Jaha, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, discussed the administration's plans to increase the availability of monkeypox vaccines.
In the next weeks, 296,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine will be made available by the Department of Health and Human Services aEUR". 56,000 doses will also be made immediately available aEUR". The Department of Health and Human Services expects that there will be 1.6 million doses in the U.S. by year's end. JYNNEOS vaccine is being distributed. It is administered in two doses, each 28 days apart.
According to the CDC, there are currently more than 300 cases of monkeypox.
NPR reported that monkeypox is not being tested for, which means the outbreak could be more severe than the current case count.
During the current outbreak, there have been no deaths due to monkeypox in the United States.
Contact with infectious rashes and infectious fluids can spread Monkeypox. Some people may have the virus on their clothing and other surfaces. Health officials emphasize that this virus seems to be mainly driven by intimate or sexual contact.
Researchers are investigating whether the virus can spread from individuals without symptoms to those who have bodily fluids such as semen or vaginal drainage. To control the outbreak, Dr. Seth Blumberg is a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco.
This new strategy will allow the vaccination of people who have been confirmed or presumed to have had monkeypox. According to an HHS press release, this includes those who were in close physical contact with someone with monkeypox and those who know that their sexual partner has been diagnosed with the disease.
Federal officials stated that they are also working to improve access to education and testing.
Dr. Ali Khan, a former CDC official and now at the University of Nebraska, says that "everything [the CDC] are doing, they should've done weeks ago." He says that the current plan "is absolutely appropriate for what is currently being seen." It is a focus on education, testing, and vaccination for high-risk groups.
