Vials of JYNNEOS monkeypox vaccine are prepared at a pop-up vaccination clinic on August 9, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Patrick T. Fallen | AFP | Getty Images
Independent advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unanimously recommended Wednesday that two doses of the Genios vaccine be given to adults at risk of pox in the event of future outbreaks, following last year’s unprecedented epidemic.
America started using Janios vaccine made by Danish company Bavarian Nordic, widely for the first time since the Biden administration declared a public health emergency last summer in response to the sudden spread of mpox domestically. The virus has historically been mostly confined to West and Central Africa, but has now spread to more than 100 countries.
Dr. Pablo Sanchez, head of the CDC committee’s mpox workgroup, said, “It is important to point out that an mpox outbreak will be determined by public health officials, and a single case may be considered an mpox outbreak at the discretion of the public health authority. ” ,
Dr. Agam Rao, a public health service official, said vaccines could be deployed in the future if mpox is introduced by a traveler or through imported animals, or if the spread causes a community to become infected as a preventive measure. need to be immunized. Virus in close proximity.
“Local health departments, state health departments, federal can all determine what’s considered an outbreak,” Rao said. “If there is even a single case from a traveler in the United States, that could be enough.”
The advisory’s recommendation on Wednesday was not specific to men who have sex with men, the community most affected by the current pandemic. Although mpox is spreading primarily through sexual contact right now, Rao said it is unclear how the virus will be transmitted in future outbreaks and which communities may be most affected.
CDC advisors will meet again in June to discuss using the genius vaccine for children at risk for mpox in future outbreaks. The US is currently offering the vaccine to adults and adolescents who are most at risk from the current pandemic.
The study found that two doses of the Genios vaccine were at least 66% effective at preventing mpox, although other trials found the effectiveness of the shots was as high as 83%. The effectiveness of a single dose ranged from 36% to 86%, depending on the study.
It’s still unclear how effective the vaccine is for people with weakened immune systems, which is important because 53% of people with mpox in the US who disclosed their HIV status were positive.
The CDC is not currently recommending vaccination for people who have recovered from mumps because they must have developed immunity to their disease, Rao said. Rao said it’s unclear whether people may need a booster dose at some point, but a study is being conducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help answer the question.
According to the CDC, serious side effects from the vaccine were rare in adults and none were identified in children. Seven cases of myocarditis and pericarditis, forms of inflammation of the heart, were reported. The CDC has not found an increased risk of heart inflammation after vaccination, but has not ruled it out either.
More than 30,000 cases of mpox have been confirmed in the US since May 2022. About 8% of people who contracted the virus were hospitalized and 32 died.
New cases have dropped dramatically since the peak in August, thanks to a successful vaccination drive and greater awareness of precautionary measures. Although the US lifted the public health emergency in January, Rao said the current outbreak is not over.
The owner of Cayuga Family Medicine in Ithaca New York, Dr. “It’s a common disease,” said Jamie Lohr.
“We still have two cases per week, which is more than we’ve had per year over the past few years,” Lohr said.
Mpox is not usually fatal for most people, although it is often extremely painful, often causing sores on sensitive areas such as the genitals.
People with severely weakened immune systems, especially those living with HIV, face a higher risk of serious illness and even death. Scientists found that a study of 382 cases published Tuesday in The Lancet had a mortality rate of 15% for people with advanced HIV who contracted mpox.
More than 1 million doses of Genius have been administered during the current outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration approved the Genios vaccine in 2019 to prevent smallpox and mpox, which are related viruses.
The World Health Organization last year renamed the virus, which was originally called monkeypox, to reduce stigma.
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