The infectologist and pediatrician, Xavier Sáez Llorens, referred this Tuesday to the application of the last dose of smallpox, after he wrote in a Twitter comment that the placement of this vaccine was in 1972.
He explained that there is somewhat confusing information from the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health (Minsa), since some indicate that the last smallpox vaccine was applied in Panama in 1972, and others say it was in 1960. “The reason for this is that smallpox became extinct from Panama in the 1960s and from the world in 1980, logically vaccination against smallpox was discontinued because the eradication of the disease was achieved,” he specified.
As for the monkey or apepox virus, Sáez Llorens stressed that the application of this last vaccine also protects against this new smallpox virus. “They are different viruses (human and monkeypox viruses),” he said.
He reiterated that the World Health Organization (WHO) does not anticipate this to be a major public health problem, so he recommended ordinary people not to be concerned about this and if they were vaccinated in the 60s or 70s “With good public health control, outbreaks can be controlled and not go further,” said the doctor.
Another important fact that the doctor gave is that outside of Africa, all the cases that have occurred in Europe, not only now but in the past, have not registered deaths.
The infectologist clarified that the vaccine is not available anywhere in Latin America, the vaccine is available in the United States and has been eliminated to avoid biological terrorism.
