The World Organization of Health authorized the first vaccine against the monkeypox for children.
Experts hope this decision will help make vaccinations be more accessible for one of the most affected populations during the current outbreaks of the disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other places in Africa.
In a release issued Tuesday night, the U.S. health agency UN said there was approved the use of the vaccine manufactured by the Japanese company KM Biologics against monkeypox in children over one year of age as a single dose.
Thousands of suspected cases
Earlier this month, the charity Save the Children indicated that cases among children under 18 years of age had increased more than 130% in the Congoand noted that there are currently more than 25,000 suspected cases.
The organization said the children had almost four times as much probabilities than adults from dying from the most recent form of this diseasedetected for the first time in the east of the Congo earlier this year.
The monkeypoxalso known as mpoxis related to smallpox and causes symptoms that include fever, rash, lesions, and fatigue.
“Children are especially vulnerable to the monkeypox“he said in a release Dr. Katia Vieira de Moraes LaCasse, from Save The Children. “They they explore touching and testing, they don’t always understand health instructions and have weaker immune systems than adults.
Scientists have pointed out that the monkeypox appears to disproportionately affect children in the Congo and Burundiwhich represent more than 90% of all cases of monkeypox found in the current outbreak in Africa.
The WHO had approved previously the vaccine against the monkeypox manufactured by Bavarian Nordic for people over 18, but said it could be used in younger populations if doctors felt the benefits could outweigh the possible risks, given the lack of data in children and other groups, such as pregnant women.
