UK to offer vaccines to boost mpox protection

[Pelican Press 0]

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*** to offer vaccines to boost mpox protection

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An mpox vaccine will be offered to thousands of men who have **** with men and some healthcare workers in the *** to boost protection against a form of the virus at the centre of an outbreak in parts of *******, the government has said.

It has bought more than 150,000 doses and plans to offer them to high-risk groups over time, starting with those who are unvaccinated.

During a worldwide outbreak of a mild form of the mpox virus in 2022, many people in those groups were vaccinated.

There are no cases of the more worrying clade 1 mpox in the *** to date and health officials say the risk to the *** population is low overall.

It is not clear when stocks of the vaccine, made by Bavarian Nordic, will arrive in the ***, but there are plans for the NHS to roll out vaccines in all four devolved nations.

The following groups are likely to be offered an mpox vaccination:

gay, *********, or other men who have **** with men (GBMSM) certain healthcare workers in infectious ******** units and ******* health servicessome humanitarian workers who travel to affected countries with active outbreaksclose contacts of a confirmed case to lower their risk of becoming infected

About 10,000 men are thought to enter the GBMSM network every year, *** health officials say.

The World Health Organization recently declared a global health emergency because of a surge in cases of clade 1 mpox – formerly known as monkeypox – in the DR Congo (DRC), where it has ******* at least 635 people this year.

Medical staff on the front line treating mpox patients in eastern DRC

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to stem the rate of new infections.

A particularly concerning mpox variant – called clade 1b – appears to be spreading quickly between people there and spreading to other surrounding countries.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the *** was also providing support to the DRC.

“The government is taking action to boost the ***’s resilience against clade 1 mpox, while providing critical support to countries at the centre of the outbreak.”

He said steps were being taken to ensure the *** was prepared with “a robust vaccination programme” that protects those who may be at high risk.

The *** has announced £3m of funding to help efforts to tackle mpox and cholera outbreaks in the DRC, and prevent further spread to neighbouring countries.

Health officials have analysed what could happen if the more dangerous and transmissible clade 1b variant of mpox spreads to the ***.

There is a lot of uncertainty, but small clusters of cases or a controllable epidemic are thought to be the most likely scenarios.

The risk that this form of mpox could start spreading in the community is an unlikely scenario, a technical briefing has found.

In the meantime, the ***’s plan is to vaccinate all those at high risk and continue to monitor the situation very carefully.

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#offer #vaccines #boost #mpox #protection

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