Monkeypox Vaccine Stall Increases Spillover Risk, Spreads Outbreaks

Concerns are mounting that the chances of containing an escalating monkeypox epidemic are looming, and vaccine shortages have forced some at-risk groups to wait weeks to get one. must.

Medical experts warn that if the outbreak is not controlled, it could spread to other populations and species.

The UK Health Security Agency Runs out the first batch of 50,000 vaccines In the next two weeks, they may not receive further doses until September. Meanwhile, other high-case countries are considering new vaccination methods as supplies dwindle.

bavaria nordic — the sole supplier of the only approved vaccine for monkeypox — announced Thursday that it has Signed contract with contract manufacturer Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing Helping complete orders for the Jynneos vaccine in the US while freeing up production capacity in other countries. We anticipate that this process will take approximately three months to go live.

Danish pharmaceutical company We are no longer certain that we will be able to meet the growing demandaccording to Bloomberg.

Since the first case of monkeypox was reported in the UK on 6 May, more than 35,000 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in 92 non-endemic countries. 12 have died.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday warned that the virus continues to spread rapidly. The number of cases has increased by 20% in the past week alone.

Monkeypox can infect anyone, but so far the overwhelming majority of cases have been confirmed in gay and bisexual men who have sex with other men.

This has fueled vaccination campaigns aimed at protecting the most vulnerable populations with pre-exposure or post-exposure vaccination, especially among developed countries. But infectious disease experts say shortages in vaccine supply and slow deployment have increased the risk of a wider outbreak.

Eyal Leshem, a professor at Israel’s Shiva Medical Center, told CNBC on Thursday, “We know from past outbreaks that the window of opportunity we have to stop the outbreak is very short. At this time, this window of opportunity is slowly opening. You can see that it is closed.

As a result, the virus may become more contagious to other groups or start to behave differently, Leshem said.

“As the number of cases increases, the chances of containing the disease decrease. Risk may spill over from the current population to other populations,” he said, including close contacts and children and pets. You listed the family as a potentially vulnerable group. .

The first known instance of this outbreak in which animals transmitted monkeypox from humans was It was reported in Paris earlier this week.

and Letter leaked to BBC, UKHSA said it would withhold some of its remaining stock purely for post-exposure patients. That means other people seeking preventive care will have to wait.

Elsewhere, Spain has reported the most cases in the non-endemic country after the United States last week. sought authorization from the European Medicines Agency Giving people smaller doses of the vaccine to spread the limited supply more widely.

Continue Similar Dose Saving Plan Backed by US health regulators, one vial of the vaccine allows for up to five doses by injecting under the skin rather than under the skin.

Still, the WHO’s monkeypox technical director, Dr Rosamund Lewis, said Wednesday that a vaccine should not be seen as the only defense against the virus.

“Vaccines are not silver bullets,” she said, noting that more data on their effectiveness are still needed. It came from a small study in the 1980s that turned out to be

She advises anyone who believes they are at risk to consider reducing the number of sex partners they have. [and] Avoid group or casual sex.” If someone has been vaccinated, they should wait until the vaccine produces the maximum immune response, usually two weeks, before engaging in sexual intercourse, she added.

Dr Jake Dunning, a senior fellow at the University of Oxford’s Pandemic Science Institute, agreed, noting that a temporary reduction in vaccinations would not necessarily derail broader efforts to combat the virus.

“If it does indeed turn out that the majority of people at highest risk of exposure have already been vaccinated, a relatively short-term and temporary reduction in vaccination coverage would be significant to achieving overall goals. It may have no impact,” he said.