The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released its first vaccine guidance related to the recent outbreak of monkeypox cases across the US and Europe.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the CDC’s leading experts on vaccines, have decided that certain health workers should be first in line to get the shots.
The recommendation issued on Friday said that the Jynneos vaccine vaccine, made by Bavarian Nordic, would be made available to certain healthcare workers and laboratory personnel.
The Mail Online reports: It comes as the U.S. records its tenth presumptive case of the virus, with a man in Colorado having a suspected infection after a recent trip to Canada, state officials announced Thursday night.
‘Certain laboratorians and health care personnel can be exposed to orthopoxviruses through occupational activities,’ ACIP wrote in its report.
The panel notes that orthopoxvirus vaccines, like JYNNEOS, were regularly distributed to children in the U.S. to combat smallpox in the past.
Smallpox, a highly devastating, deadly, virus, was eradicated in 1980, though, and use of the vaccines has since been dropped from mandatory to scarce.
Officials still recommend that some parts of the population do continue to receive the shots, though, including people who may be exposed to these viruses at work.
America has a stockpile of over 1,000 doses of the two-dose vaccine in place for a situation like this.
The country also has 100 million doses of ACAM2000, another pox vaccine, in its stockpile, though that jab has been replaced by JYNNEOS because of its increased risk of negative side-effects.
On Monday, the CDC reported that the country had planned to distribute the shots to the most high-risk group.
Rollout of the vaccines to the high risk groups is expected to begin soon.
The recommendation comes as the U.S. monkeypox tally to reaches ten, with nine cases having been confirmed by the CDC on Thursday.