Health has notified today, Thursday, 242 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Spain, nine more than yesterday, out of a total of 486 suspicious samples that have already been analyzed by the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid. The majority of cases belong to the Community of Madrid. Once the 200 doses of the Inmvanex vaccine available against MonkeyPox have been received, the Health Commission has met today with the Communities and experts in the field to determine how to deploy the vaccination of said doses.
Health has thus decided that vaccination against monkeypox will for now be aimed at close contacts who have had a risky contact with an infected person in the previous four days, and at people considered to be at high risk, such as health personnel exposed to these patients , or laboratory workers in contact with Monkeypox samples, as well as immunosuppressed patients, such as HIV carriers. Due to the “limited availability of doses”, priority will be given to receiving them to people with a high risk of exposure or seriousness. Said vaccination will therefore be post-exposure. And, as the Ministry reflects, “it is not recommended at this time to pre-exposure (preventive) vaccination, although it could be recommended later depending on the evolution of the outbreak and the availability of vaccines”.
Close contact is considered according to the Health protocol to those people in contact with a confirmed case “from the moment of appearance of the first symptoms in the following circumstances: close contact, direct contact with clothes, percutaneous wound and handling of samples”.
Depending on the circumstances and availability of new doses, the vaccination of those individuals with multiple sexual partners will also be assessed. As stated by the WHO, the risk to the population is low for now and mass vaccination is not recommended, although events will have to wait.
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