Monkeypox: US begins offering vaccines to gay and bisexual men – WION
Amid the monkeypox outbreak, the New York health department began offering vaccines to gay and bisexual men.
The New York department said all over 18 who have had multiple or anonymous partners in the last 14 days were eligible for the vaccine.
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Two doses of the Jynneos vaccine was administered which have been approved by the FDA. UK’s Health Security Agency had said earlier that doctors should consider vaccinating gay or bisexual men who were at the “highest risk of exposure”.
The Jynneos vaccine is given two weeks apart.
Watch: Surge in Monkeypox cases increases vaccine demands
The UK health agency said it was hoping to “break chains of transmission”. Reports claim most monkeypox cases in Britain are among men with the majority being gay or bisexual men.
In fact, the US health officials said they 56,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine in an effort to ramp up vaccination.
“We are recommending that vaccines be provided to both people with known Monkeypox exposures who are contacted by public health and also to those people who’ve been recently exposed to Monkeypox that may not be identified through case investigations,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said.
At least 4,700 Monkeypox cases have been detected so far after it was first reported in May. Monkeypox symptoms include fever and rash and it spreads through close contact.
The World Health Organization while stating that the outbreak was concerning hasn’t designated it as a global health emergency however a number of cases have been detected in Europe and the US worrying health officials.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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