The first batch of 5,300 doses of monkeypox vaccine purchased by the European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) was delivered to Spain on Tuesday, a Commission spokesperson said. .
“As of today, the first deliveries of vaccines in response to the monkeypox epidemic are arriving in the most affected countries,” said Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.
In mid-June, the Commission purchased 109,090 doses of Imvanex, a smallpox vaccine produced by Danish manufacturer Bavarian Nordic and offered to begin deliveries to European Union (EU) member states as well as to Norway and Iceland by the end of this month.
Vaccine doses are allocated on a pro-rata basis, with countries reporting the highest number of priority cases for delivery. After Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium will receive vaccines.
Also on Tuesday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) launched an ongoing review of the use of Imvanex against monkeypox. Laboratory studies indicate that the vaccine “triggers the production of antibodies that target the monkeypox virus,” according to the agency.
Imvanex is currently authorized in the EU for the prevention of smallpox in adults. Since the smallpox and monkeypox viruses are closely related, the smallpox vaccine could be used to contain the spread of monkeypox.
Since Imvanex is not widely available in the EU, the EMA recommends the use of its US-made version called Jynneos, which has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). United for smallpox and monkeypox.
Symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches and exhaustion, and the disease can be fatal. It is a zoonotic disease, that is to say that it can be transmitted from animals to humans, but also from humans to humans.
“Since May 18, approximately 2,682 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 23 EU member states (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy , Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden) as well as Norway and Iceland,” the Commission said.
The current outbreak of monkeypox is the first recorded outside of Africa.
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