NHS Fife made the call as youngsters returned to school after the summer break.
All primary and secondary school pupils are eligible for the vaccine, which is given in schools as a painless nasal spray.
NHS Fife said vaccination against flu reduces the chances of them missing class time and other activities due to illness and helps prevent them passing the illness to vulnerable family members.
Consent packs containing a letter, leaflet and consent form will be sent home to parents and carers of school children on return to school.
Secondary pupils can self-consent, though they are encouraged to speak to a parent or carer first.
Letters with appointment details for children aged two to five years who are not yet at school will begin to arrive at homes from September.
The nasal spray is a quick and painless way of delivering the flu vaccine to children and should start to provide protection within 10-14 days.
Dr Esther Curnock, consultant in public health medicine, said: Getting the nasal spray flu vaccine is the best way to protect your child and those around them.
The flu virus changes over time so your child needs to get the vaccine each year to help stay protected.
The message was backed by Maree Todd MSP, Public Health Minister.She said: Flu can be serious, even for healthy children, so the vaccine offers the best possible protection for your child and those around them who may be more vulnerable to flu. Getting your child vaccinated can help prevent them getting sick, from spreading flu, and requiring time off school and away from other activities.
School children will receive the flu vaccine in school between September and December. Parents of two to five-year-olds who are not yet at school will be given information about where their child will be vaccinated in their appointment letter.
In a small number of cases, the nasal spray may not be suitable, and the vaccine can be given as an injection.
In many places, there's still a major shortage of monkeypox vaccines. A plan to stretch the U.S. supply could help get shots into arms more quickly, but it's also untested and introduces new challenges. Richard Vogel/AP hide caption
In many places, there's still a major shortage of monkeypox vaccines. A plan to stretch the U.S. supply could help get shots into arms more quickly, but it's also untested and introduces new challenges.
After a bumpy start, the Biden administration is trying to smooth out the vaccination campaign aimed at controlling the country's growing monkeypox outbreak.
The effort now rests on a new and untested strategy of dividing up what were previously full doses in order to stretch the limited stockpile of vaccines in the U.S.
This comes as monkeypox cases have climbed well above 14,000 in the U.S. a case count higher than any other country in the world and yet many local health departments still report not having enough vaccines to reach all those who are considered at heightened risk of contracting the disease.
"We are definitely in what we're still calling 'The Hunger Games' phase of this where there's nowhere near enough doses for the demand," says Dr. Mark Del Beccaro, Assistant Deputy Chief for Public Health Seattle & King County.
Already facing the expected logistical hurdles of running a vaccine campaign in a public health emergency, health officials now have to tackle another challenge: how to squeeze five doses out of single-dose vials.
"It's great that we are able to increase the number of people we can vaccinate with the current supply," says Claire Hannan, head of the Association of Immunization Managers. Still, "when you make a change like that, it's kind of like turning the barge around in the middle of the sea."
The change poses challenges with messaging and logistics training providers and getting the right equipment and it raises concerns among some over equity as early vaccine data rolls in, showing significant racial disparities.
The U.S. government's plan to get the disease under control is largely based on giving out the JYNNEOS vaccine, a two-shot series against monkeypox made by Bavarian Nordic.
But a series of missteps at the start of the response left the U.S. with a major vaccine shortage. The federal government was slow to order vaccines, allowing other countries to jump the queue, and distribution has been chaotic for states and cities.
So far, the U.S. has shipped around 700,000 vials of the monkeypox vaccine to states and territories for distribution. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the first priority is to vaccinate the 1.7 million people who are considered at highest risk.
Facing a shortage in vaccines, the Food and Drug Administration authorized a new dosing strategy last week: the vaccine can now be administered using an "intradermal injection" where the vaccine is injected into the skin rather than the typical method of injecting into the layer of fat underneath the skin.
"This action serves to markedly increase vaccine supply," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, in a video released this week. "Intradermal administration of the JYNNEOS vaccine allows vaccine providers to administer a total of up to five separate doses from an existing one-dose vial."
Federal officials are adamant that this smaller amount of vaccine should not be considered a "partial dose" because it's still able to produce a similar level of immunologic response as the original method of administering the vaccine.
However, the evidence for this method is scant, though it has worked for vaccinating against other diseases.
The theory rests on the fact that there are many immune cells embedded in the skin. "When a vaccine is given into this tissue, you can generate a robust immune response using a smaller amount of vaccine," said Dr. John Brooks, a medical epidemiologist from CDC in the video, citing a 2015 study on the vaccine. Brooks also stressed that the method has been studied on other vaccines including those for flu and rabies.
There's also a practical problem with the plan to squeeze five doses out of what was once a single dose:
"It's just mechanically difficult to do," says Del Beccaro of Seattle & King County. "The federal announcement of five doses per vial was, I think, incredibly optimistic and what we're seeing in real life is three to four doses per vial."
Hannan, head of the Association of Immunization Managers, has heard the same concerns.
"Hopefully we will start to see more of the vials yielding five doses, but we're not really seeing that consistently right now," she says.
And yet it seems the federal government is assuming five doses per vial as it divvys up the supplies of vaccine and sends those out to health departments, says Del Beccaro.
So far, much of the U.S. vaccine campaign has focused on reaching people who are unvaccinated and at increased risk of contracting monkeypox, but soon health departments will also have to be ready for the influx of people returning for their second doses 28 days later.
In the Seattle area, that could add up to about 4,000 people in the last week of August. And while it continues to be difficult to predict how the federal supply could change, Del Beccaro says currently it looks like they will not be getting enough vaccine to do second shots while also providing first shots at a high rate.
The switch also requires new supplies and training, says Janna Kerins, medical director at the Chicago Department of Public Health. "It means using a different syringe, a different needle," she says, "So it has taken a bit of time to make sure people have the supplies."
Plus providers need technical training in how to administer a dose into the skin. And "we also need to educate [providers and the communities they serve] on the data that supports this change," though there's not much available, she says.
The new dosing strategy is also feeding into a strong sense of inequity among some in the communities most at risk for the disease.
The overwhelming majority of U.S. cases are still being detected among "men who reported recent sexual contact with other men," CDC director Rochelle Walensky told reporters on Thursday.
Though the data is imperfect, what's currently available shows another trend: a disproportionately high number of Black and LatinX members of the gay and queer community are getting monkeypox and they've also had a hard time getting access to vaccines.
On August 10, North Carolina's health department released findings that 70% of the state's cases have been detected in Black men, but just 24% of monkeypox vaccines have gone to this group.
Chicago is also seeing vaccination gaps in men of color. 30% of the city's cases have been found among Latino men, but just 15% of vaccines have gone to the Latino population, according to Kerins, in Chicago. "We have some work to do to try to align the doses of vaccine better with those who are [at risk of] becoming cases," she says.
National data indicates that queer Black and Brown communities are experiencing high rates of monkeypox: 33% of cases are occurring among those who are Hispanic and 28% among those who are Black.
While no national data has been shared on vaccinations, lack of access for these groups is a problem across the board, says Joseph Osmundson, a microbiologist at NYU and a queer community organizer in New York. The new dosing strategy could feed into that.
"We expect the data in New York and elsewhere to be similar," Osmundson says. "What this [dosing strategy] is doing is using a different dosing regimen for those who get the vaccine late who are more likely to be working class and more likely to be Black and Brown, who have not had the privilege, the ability to access vaccine yet."
The disparities in vaccine access have sowed suspicion and distrust in communities of color, says Kenyon Farrow, with the advocacy group Prep4All.
Farrow says public health leaders still have to do more to explain why this new strategy is not necessarily inferior. He says a sentiment he's seen online, especially from gay men of color, is that "they let White gay men take all the first full doses. And so we're now supposed to believe that a fifth of that dose is going to do us just as well."
Federal health officials say they're working to bridge these disparities.
On Thursday, the White House monkeypox response team announced a pilot program to bring vaccines to Pride festivals and events where they can reach the gay, bisexual and queer communities at highest risk for contracting the virus.
"Many of the events we're focusing on are events that focus on populations who are overrepresented in this outbreak," including Black and Latino individuals, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, deputy coordinator of the national monkeypox response, said on Thursday during a briefing with federal health officials.
"It's really about positioning messaging and biomedical interventions where people can reach it, and also making sure that we're going to the right places and talking about the right people."
A health-care worker prepares to administer a free monkeypox vaccine in Wilton Manors, Florida. The question: Can vaccination slow the outbreak? Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption
A health-care worker prepares to administer a free monkeypox vaccine in Wilton Manors, Florida. The question: Can vaccination slow the outbreak?
Finally, we have a glimmer of good news about monkeypox: The outbreaks in some countries, including the U.K., Germany and parts of Canada, are starting to slow down.
On top of that, the outbreak in New York City may also be peaking and on the decline, according to new data from the city's health department.
All these outbreaks are "far from extinguished," says infectious disease specialist Dr. Donald Vinh at McGill University in Montreal. But there are signs that, in some places, "they're a bit more under control than they had been."
For example, in the U.K., the number of new cases reported each day has steadily declined since late July, dropping from 50 daily cases to only about 25. (By contrast, here in the U.S., daily cases are still increasing. Since late July, the U.S. daily count has risen from 350 new cases to 450 cases.)
Some health officials credit the monkeypox vaccine and its quick rollout as the key factor that's slowing the spread of the virus in the U.K..
"Over 25,000 have been vaccinated with the smallpox vaccine, as part of the strategy to contain the monkeypox outbreak in the UK.," the U.K. Health Security Agency wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. "These 1000s of vaccines, given by the NHS to those at highest risk of exposure, should have a significant impact on the transmission of the virus."
Indeed, the U.K. and parts of Canada rolled out the vaccine in late May, weeks before doses became available in most U.S. cities.
But does the monkeypox vaccine have the ability to stop or curb the spread of the virus? To answer that question, we need to first understand a few basics about this vaccine.
What actually is the monkeypox vaccine? How does it work?
So the monkeypox vaccine is actually the smallpox vaccine. Maybe that sounds a bit strange, but in fact the two pox viruses are related. They're a bit like cousins.
Health-care workers used an earlier version of this vaccine to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s. So versions of this vaccine have been given to hundreds of millions of people over the past century. It has a long track record.
Back in the late 1980s, researchers started to notice something remarkable about this vaccine. During a monkeypox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then called Zaire), people who were immunized against smallpox were less likely to get monkeypox. They were protected. And not by just a little but by quite a bit. In a small study, published in 1988, researchers estimated the smallpox vaccine offered about 85% protection against monkeypox.
Now, the virus in this study was a different variant of monkeypox than the one circulating in the current international outbreak and that variant wasn't spreading primarily through sexual contact, as monkeypox is doing today. So we don't know how well these findings will translate to protection during the current outbreak. Which brings us to the next question.
How well does the vaccine protect against a monkeypox infection?
The short answer is: "We don't know," says infectious disease specialist Dr. Boghuma Titanji at Emory University.
There's no doubt the vaccine will offer some protection, Titanji says. "But right now, we still need studies in people to understand what level that protection actually is."
In North America and Europe, countries are primarily rolling out a vaccine called JYNNEOS, which was developed in the early 21st century. The goal with this vaccine is to increase its safety compared to the older vaccine, whose life-threatening complications, including encephalitis and skin necrosis, occurred in about 4 out of every million people vaccinated. That vaccine also could cause damaging skin lesions in people with eczema or weakened immune systems. (Note: There is a shortage of the JYNNEOS vaccine, and no doses have been shared with or sold to countries in Africa, which have experienced monkeypox outbreaks since the 1970s.)
Although older versions of the vaccine have been tested thoroughly in people, there has never been a large, clinical study to measure JYNNEOS's ability to protect against a monkeypox infection in people or to stop transmission of the virus.
What is known about the vaccine, in terms of its efficacy against monkeypox, comes from studies in macaques, and immunological studies in people, which demonstrated the vaccine triggers the production of monkeypox antibodies in people's blood.
"So we know that the vaccine does stimulate the immune system and people produce antibodies when they receive the vaccine," Titanji says, "but we don't have a clinical data in humans to actually tell us, 'Okay, that immune response translates to this level of protection against getting infected with monkeypox or reducing the severity of monkeypox disease if you do get infected.' "
And it's not a guarantee of protection. In this current outbreak, scientists have already begun to document breakthrough infection with this vaccine, the World Health Organization reported Thursday. "[This] is also really important information because it tells us that the vaccine is not 100% effective in any given circumstance," said Dr. Rosamund Lewis of WHO. "We cannot expect 100% effectiveness at the moment based on this emerging information."
And so when Titanji gives a person the JYNNEOS vaccine at her clinic, she is very clear about what the vaccine can and can't do. "I tell them, 'We do know that you're going to get some protection from this vaccine. Some protection is better than no protection. We also do know that the vaccine can reduce the severity of the disease if you do get infected. But we don't know for a fact that you would be completely protected from getting monkeypox.' "
Can this vaccine if given to the people who need it the most slow down the outbreak?
So the new data from the U.K. and Germany suggest that indeed this vaccine can curb the spread of monkeypox.
But Dr. Vinh at McGill University says it's way too soon to say the vaccine, alone, is the only factor contributing to the slow down in these countries. "No single measure is going to really be the solution here," says Vinh.
In addition to vaccination, people at high risk need to learn how they can protect themselves. And doctors have to learn how to spot monkeypox cases, he says.
Right now the percentage of monkeypox tests coming back positive is still incredibly high, Titanji says. "The positivity rate is close to 40%." And that means doctors are missing many cases. Specifically, they are still mistaking monkeypox for other sexually transmitted diseases such as syphyllis.
"I can tell you, from the lens of a clinician, that monkeypox is very, very easy to mistake for another infectious disease," she says.
Some people have had to visit clinics two or three times and even have been treated for another STD before the clinician suspects monkeypox.
"You really have to maintain a very high index of suspicion because some of the lesions are so subtle and the clinical presentation is so variable," she says. "At this phase of the outbreak, we should be over testing rather than under testing. If a doctor even remotely suspects monkeypox, they should be sending a test for it."
Otherwise people can't receive treatment for monkeypox and they can unknowingly spread it to others. And the outbreak will continue to grow while people wait to receive a vaccine and for that vaccine to begin working.
Health officials are working to ensure people receive their second vaccines.
ATLANTA Health departments across Georgia are trying to keep up with the demand for the monkeypox vaccine. Health officials are working to ensure patients receive their first and second doses.
In DeKalb County, a second vaccine appointment is scheduled at the time of the first vaccine appointment. The Fulton County Board of Health sent out a tweet on Wednesdayfor those who were eligible to call and make an appointment.
A spokesperson for the department explained there was a delay in sending out emails to the first group who received the vaccine, but they were working to make appointments available in a timely manner.
11Alive Medical Exert Dr. Sujatha Reddy explained the two doses of the vaccine are designed to provide maximum protection from monkeypox. She explained the vaccine is given in two doses over a four-week period.
"They're injecting a monkeypox virus that cannot duplicate itself. So, it's not going to make you sick. It stays in your body. Your immune system sees this sort of inactive virus and starts making antibodies to it. So while it is a part of the monkeypox vaccine, it's not enough of the vaccine to give you monkeypox, but it's enough to tell your immune system this is a bad actor, make antibodies against it," she said.
The Futon County Board of Health plans to send emails to those who are eligible for their second doses, which guides them to the State Department of Health Online Portal.
Dr. Reddy said at this stage, it's important to make sure those who are most at risk, as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have access to the vaccine and get their second doses.
"Not everybody out there needs to rush to get a monkeypox vaccine. So we want the people at risk to get the vaccine and get both doses," she said.
Dr. Reddy also said those seeking appointments should ask questions to make sure they are prepared to get the vaccine in a timely manner.
"Ask them, 'Are they holding that second dose for you?' Because it's going to be important to get people fully vaccinated to really get a handle on this epidemic," Dr. Reddy said.
Test tubes labelled "Monkeypox virus positive" are seen in this illustration taken May 22, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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LONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - European countries could stretch out limited supplies of the monkeypox vaccine by administering smaller doses of the shot, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Friday.
The agency's advice is in line with the so-called fractional dosing approach endorsed by U.S. regulators in which one vial of the vaccine can be used to administer up to five separate doses - instead of a single dose - by injecting a smaller amount in between layers of the skin (intradermal injection). read more
The vaccine - called Jynneos, Imvanex and Imvamune, depending on geography - was designed to be injected into a layer of fat beneath the skin, known as a subcutaneous injection.
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As a temporary measure, national authorities may decide to use the vaccine as an intradermal injection at a lower dose to protect at-risk individuals during the current monkeypox outbreak while supply of the vaccine remains limited, the EMA said.
The recommendation is based on a study involving about 500 adults, which compared the performance of the vaccine given either intradermally or subcutaneously, as two doses given about a month apart.
Those who received the intradermal injection received one fifth of the subcutaneous dose, but produced similar levels of antibodies as those who received the original subcutaneous dose, the EMA said.
However, the agency cautioned there was a higher risk of local reactions, such as redness, and thickening or discoloration of the skin after intradermal injections.
More than 40,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox - including a handful of deaths - in over 80 countries where the virus is not endemic have been reported since early May.
The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a global health emergency. The vaccine, made by Bavarian Nordic (BAVA.CO), is in short supply.
Several countries are stretching out the available doses, with unknown outcomes, to make the most of existing supplies.
Britain, Canada, and Germany are administering one dose per person instead of two, which allows them to inoculate more people even if they each may receive less or less durable protection.
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Reporting by Natalie Grover in London; Editing by Mike Harrison and Alistair Bell
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Bettigole said this allocation change will delay the citys plans to expand its vaccine rollout to more people. Currently, most doses are going to residents whove had suspected or confirmed monkeypox exposures.
We have a large, high-risk population that desperately needs and wants this vaccine, Bettigole said. We have a local health department that is able and willing to work with community partners to get it into arms. And those two things together mean that we should be getting more vaccine.
There are 353 recorded cases of monkeypox in Pennsylvania so far, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A public city tracking dashboard shows that 198 of those cases are in Philadelphia.
The city has so far received about 6,445 doses of vaccine. More than 80% of those have already been administered to high-risk residents or distributed to community health providers.
Philadelphia was set to receive another 3,612 vials of vaccine by the fall, before the supply was cut to 720 vials.
The change in allocation, made by the U.S. Health and Human Services Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, comes on the heels of a new national dosing strategy, which instructs health providers to give an intradermal injection of one-fifth of the full dose to each person.
The idea behind the strategy is to increase the total number of vaccinations. Philadelphia health officials said they thought theyd be doing this with the original allotment of vaccine.
Our understanding was, great, we can give more doses, Bettigole said. Its a little bit more complicated to do, theres some additional training for the vaccinators, but thousands more people could get vaccinated. Unfortunately, thats not where we are right now.
In discussions with federal agencies earlier this week, Bettigole said it was her understanding that the federal government is reserving the additional vaccine vials for ongoing planning in the U.S. monkeypox outbreak.
A request for comment from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wasnt immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.
Bettigole said the city department will continue to make its case to federal agencies for more vaccines.
To obtain a monkeypox vaccine in the city of Richmond or Henrico County, residents are asked to fill out an interest form that asks several personal questions: Do you visit sex clubs? How many sexual partners have you had in the past 3 months? Have you engaged in anonymous sex?
Richmond resident Demas Boudreaux wanted a vaccine, but he felt uncomfortable answering the questions and sending his personal information into the World Wide Web, where it could be subject to hacking.
Boudreaux
Instead, he sought the vaccine in Roanoke, where the application process involved no personal questions. He called and got his shot a week later.
Roanokes process was infinitely more user-friendly and non-invasive, said Boudreaux, a member of the states LGBTQ advisory board. But he understands why the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts have to ask those questions to sort out who is most in need of the under-allocated shot.
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Im not trying to throw the health department under the bus, he said. I do trust the health department, but it feels a little icky.
Gay men in the Richmond area are unhappy with the limited number of monkeypox vaccine doses available, the personal information the health district is asking them to divulge, and the way some have stigmatized the virus as a gay disease.
I think theres obvious frustration about the number of vaccines that are available and how theyre being rolled out, said Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia, an organization that works on behalf of LGBTQ residents.
There have been nearly 14,000 cases of monkeypox in the U.S., but only 248 in Virginia and 21 in the states central region.
All but two have occurred in men, and most are in gay and bisexual men, health officials have said. Symptoms include lesions, fever and body pains. There have been no deaths in the U.S.
The U.S. recently made available an additional 1.8 million doses of the Jynneos vaccine, which was licensed in 2019 to prevent monkeypox and smallpox.
Vials of single doses of the Jynneos vaccine for monkeypox were seen in the vaccine hub at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center on July 29.
The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts have received 937 doses and distributed more than half. But thats not nearly enough to cover the roughly 4,000 people who have submitted an interest form.
The Biden administration recently recommended state health departments inject the shot intradermally, or between the layers of the skin, rather than subcutaneously, or under the skin. Injecting it intradermally allows for five doses per vial as opposed to the one dose per vial currently available.
The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts are training their staff to apply the shot intradermally but have not begun doing so, said Dr. Elaine Perry, the districts director.
Localities not putting it out there
When Boudreaux contacted a health district near Roanoke, the district asked him why he wanted a monkeypox shot. Boudreaux responded that hes gay, and that was enough to satisfy the health district.
About a week later, he drove to the Roanoke area. The timing worked out, as he had a work commitment nearby. After four weeks, hell return for a second shot.
I was able to make it work, Boudreaux said.
Phil Kazmierczak, a Virginia Beach resident who is also a member of the LGBTQ advisory board, was asked just one question when he sought the vaccine near his home.
Kazmierczak
The health officials wanted to know if he was eligible for the vaccine according to the state health departments standards. Residents are eligible if they are gay or bisexual men, transgender women who have sex with men, sex workers, people who work at establishments where sexual activity occurs or people who attend sex-on-premises venues.
Kazmierczak replied that yes, he is eligible. The next day, he received the shot.
He said local officials could do a better job notifying communities how to get it.
Our local governments are not putting it out there, he told the advisory council. Theyre just not.
Asking personal questions helps the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts determine who is at the highest risk, said Dr. Melissa Viray, a deputy director for the departments. With demand outpacing supply, the districts will prioritize the residents with the highest risk.
The local districts considered using a less invasive questionnaire, but decided to keep them while demand is high, Viray said.
To protect personal data from intrusion, the district uses Research Electronic Data Capture, or REDCap, a secure web application developed by Vanderbilt University, to house the information. REDCap is compliant with HIPAA, the federal standard for patient privacy, Viray said. Data is stored on a server internally managed by the health districts.
Staff also limits which employees can access patient records.
Its nobodys business except for those who absolutely have to have it, Viray said.
Theres no such thing as a gay disease
A lack of information and misinformation are still an issue with monkeypox, so Equality Virginia is doing its best to make sure people are educated, Rahaman said.
The organization is relaying information about the disease from the health department so people can understand the symptoms, how one becomes exposed and demand for the vaccine. That will help people make better decisions.
Equality Virginia is also encouraging people to get tested if they develop symptoms so officials can have a more accurate number of cases in the state.
Its also doing its best to fight misinformation.
Its not a gay disease because theres no such thing as a gay disease, Rahaman said.
Last week, Kazmierczak posted to his Facebook that a monkeypox vaccination event would be held at a Norfolk club. He was met with a lack of understanding and a lack of empathy.
Tell me this is a joke, commented one person.
Safe sex is always a better option than experimental vaccines provided by your tyrannical government, said another. The last one they forced on the American people should be a glaring example of their complete ineptitude.
(Jynneos was approved in 2019, but the virus material in the shot is similar to the first smallpox vaccine developed in 1796.)
Another said 90% of monkeypox infections are in men who have sex with men. Change the culture and keep men safe and healthy. Its safer than vaccines.
Health experts recommend people interested in the vaccine receive it if eligible.
According to health experts, monkeypox can be spread in ways other than sexual contact. It can be spread by sharing clothing or sheets that havent been washed or other skin-to-skin contact. Public health officials have warned college students that campuses could become incubators for the virus.
Should it spread to the community at large, Boudreaux worries the gay community will be blamed, similar to how Asian Americans were targeted for the spread of the coronavirus. Spread of the virus could be curtailed if there were more vaccines, Boudreaux said.
Theres just not enough vaccine, he added.
ekolenich@timesdispatch.com
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Twitter: @EricKolenich
Health officials are looking to make progress on a long waitlist for vaccines while they offer tailored messaging.
As monkeypox continues to spread in Multnomah County, health officials are working to provide a short supply of vaccines to people on a growing waitlist.
As of Tuesday, Aug. 16, there were 1,500 people on the county's waitlist for the vaccine, called JYNNEOS, according to county officials. That's up from 500 people a month ago.
Due to a national shortage of vaccines, the Oregon Health Authority is limiting doses to people considered high-risk for monkeypox, also known as hMPXV.
"I hope that as we have more vaccine, the eligibility criteria will become more broad," Kim Toevs, communicable disease and harm reduction director for the county, told the board of commissioners during a briefing Tuesday. "When it does, it will become a lot more simple."
High-risk people include those who've had close contact with someone with monkeypox, people who've had sex with someone in the past two weeks who has been diagnosed with the disease, and people who had multiple sexual partners in the past two weeks in an area with community transmission of the virus.
Oregon was expected to receive a shipment from the federal government last week that would add 5,000 vials of the vaccine to the county's inventory, according to county officials.
Last month, OHA officials increased the supply of vaccines for Multnomah County, enabling the county to hold twice-weekly community vaccine clinics.
Also helping the county's efforts to limit the spread of the virus is a change in how the vaccine is administered. Earlier this month, federal health officials announced a new injection strategy, in which the vaccine is injected between layers of skin rather than into fat, increasing the number of doses per vial from one to five.
Toevs acknowledged Tuesday that the response to the monkeypox outbreak hasn't been perfect.
The limited supply of vaccines and a shortage of staff for the county's vaccination clinics have made it difficult to contain the virus.
"There's certainly more we could have done if we had more capacity," Toevs said.
She said health department staff have been applying lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to its monkeypox response, leaning on the relationships they've built across county departments and in the community.
"The teams are tired, but they're working really hard," Toevs said. "The teams are working incredibly effectively and efficiently. I'm just really proud of them and I think our response so far has been solid."
There were 116 cases of monkeypox statewide as of Wednesday, Aug. 17, with 73 of those cases in Multnomah County, according to OHA.
In addition to vaccinations, the county is focusing on testing people who develop symptoms so they can isolate, contacting people who may have been exposed to someone with the disease and encouraging people who are most at risk to take steps to protect themselves.
The disease spreads most easily by direct skin contact with rashes or sores people infected with the virus develop. It can be spread less readily by sharing bedding or clothing or from having prolonged close respiratory contact with infected people.
The group most heavily impacted by the virus has been gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. Health officials emphasize that while that group has been the most impacted, the virus can infect anybody. There's nothing specific about people who have sex with men that puts them at higher risk, gay, queer and trans communities have simply been the first socially connected groups affected, health officials say.
The county created recommendations specifically for the gay, queer and trans communities that include ways to reduce the likelihood of transmission, how to communicate with sexual partners, how to identify an infection and resources for access to testing and vaccines.
Health department staff have met with LGBTQ community organizations and groups that work with people of color to help educate vulnerable people, according to county officials.
"I appreciate the effort to tailor messaging," said Commissioner Sharon Meieran. "Some people in groups at the highest risk have a lot of fear and misinformation and don't know where to go."
Another group that has been disproportionately affected by the virus so far is people identifying as Hispanic. Twenty-seven percent of cases belong to the group, according to OHA data.
Toevs said the county needs to be ready in case the disease begins to increasingly affect different communities. "Obviously, our strategies will change," she said.
Anyone exposed to the virus or who may need a vaccine is being advised to call the county's health department call center at 503-988-8939.
For more information about monkeypox and how to protect against it, visit the county's website.
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Look up coronaor Corona in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to:
Corona may also refer to:
Topics referred to by the same term
For Prelims: Viral zoonosis, Monkey Pox, Small Pox.
For Mains: Zoonotic Diseases, Health.
Recently, Health authorities in the United Kingdom have confirmed a case of monkeypox, a rare viral infection similar to smallpox, in an individual who recently travelled to that country from Nigeria.
Q. Consider the following diseases: (2014)
Which of the above diseases has/have beeneradicated in India?
(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 3 only (c) 1, 2 and 3 (d) None
Ans: (b)
Source: IE
