Infectious disease: EU Commission approves monkeypox vaccine
Status: 07/25/2022 2:38 p.m
The EU Commission has approved a vaccine against monkeypox. Vaccination protection is now available in the 27 EU countries as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
The EU Commission has approved the vaccine Imvanex against monkeypox. A spokesman for the EU Commission confirmed that the authority was a recommendation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). She approved the preparation of the company Bavarian Nordic for adults to protect against the infectious disease.
The disease with monkeypox
Along with smallpox, which has been eradicated since 1980, monkeypox is considered a less serious disease. According to the RKI, the incubation period is five to 21 days. These (including fever and skin rash, for example) usually go away on their own within a few weeks, but can lead to medical illness and, in very rare cases, death in some people. Monkeypox occurs mainly in West and Central Africa and very rarely spreads to other countries, making the current trend unusual.
Vaccination recommended in Germany for risk groups
The vaccine is now approved in the 27 member states of the EU and in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. In Germany and some other EU countries, however, there were already national exemptions for use against monkeypox.
The Standing Vaccination Commission recommends vaccination against monkeypox in Germany for certain risk groups and people who have had close contact with infected people. She sees an increased risk of infection in men who have same-sex sexual contact with changing partners.
EU has ordered more than 160,000 doses of vaccine
So far, the vaccine has only been approved at EU level to protect adults against smallpox. On Friday, the European Medicines Agency in The Hague spoke out in favor of extending the approval to include monkeypox.
The EU has already signed two contracts for a total of 163,620 doses of the vaccine as the number of infections has increased in recent weeks. EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides expressed concern about the rapid spread in the EU.
“Emergency of National Concern”
The WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak an “emergency of international concern” over the weekend. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus named the number of more than 16,000 confirmed cases in more than 70 countries. According to the RKI, 2,352 cases of monkeypox have been registered in Germany to date.