August 9, 2022, 9:35 PM
August 9, 2022, 9:35 PM
U.S. authorities on Tuesday authorized a new procedure of injection of the smallpox vaccine of the monkeywhich should allow more people to be vaccinated with the same amount of product, when doses are scarce.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also authorized administration of the vaccine in people under the age of 18 considered at high risk of infection.
For the Over 18the vaccine may be injected by intradermallybetween the upper layers of the skin, and not subcutaneously, much deeper.
This strategy will allow you to use less product per injection and thus “increase up to five times the total number of doses available,” the FDA said in a statement.
A second injection at four weeks of the first will still be necessary.
The agency claimed to rely on data from a 2015 clinical trial that showed the immune response of people who received a subcutaneous injection was similar to that of those who received a fifth of the dose intradermally.
Until now, about 620,000 doses of the vaccine manufactured by Bavarian Nordic and marketed as Jynneos in the United States have been distributed in that country.
Some 440,000 supplementary doses will be distributed, which could allow 2.2 million injections following the new strategy.
The US government has ordered 5 million supplemental doses which will begin to be available from September.
The decision stemmed from an emergency authorization of the vaccine granted by the FDA after the declaration of a public health emergency in the United States last week.
The agency noted that it had reviewed the vaccine safety data to authorize it in minors, as well as those of another vaccine administered in children against smallpox.
The United States currently records about 9,000 cases of monkeypox, a fifth of which is concentrated in the state of New York. The vast majority are men who have had sex with other men.
