Monkeypox vaccines take a few weeks to build up an immune response in the body, Rosamund Lewis said Tuesday. expert in this disease of the World Health Organization (WHO), who insisted that for now a massive vaccination of populations is ruled out.
“For now we recommend vaccination only to those who may be exposed to cases,” said the director of the WHO response to this disease, who cited among possible candidates for vaccination family, friends and sexual contacts of people in whom the disease has been confirmed, as well as health workers.
Lewis indicated that the recommended vaccines for this disease are currently three: the MVA-BN (manufactured in Denmark), the Japanese LC16 and the American ACAM2000, initially developed against conventional smallpox, a more serious disease that was eradicated on the planet more than 40 years ago.
Can read: Lufthansa cancels almost all its flights in Germany due to strike
The expert assured that the current outbreak, declared an international emergency on July 23, “can be stopped with appropriate strategies directed at certain groups”without implying stigma and discrimination.
About 98% of cases have so far been detected in men who have sex with men, Lewis recalled, who also cited that cases have been detected in almost a dozen children (less than 0.06% of the 16 thousand total cases confirmed in the current outbreak).
The head of the WHO indicated that there are discussions within the organization for a possible name change of the disease, since the current one erroneously points to primates as its origin, when studies indicate that it actually passed from the animal world to the human being through rodents.
Also read: They release a man who slit his wife’s throat as an “act of love”
The disease was called “monkeypox” because it was first detected in primates during laboratory studies in Denmark, in 1958.
Lewis acknowledged, however, that the current name is already in wide use among doctors and health workers, in addition to appearing on the official list of WHO diseases, so the modification would require a complex process.
