Rome 9th August : Italy has started vaccination of people against monkeypox. Spallanzani Hospital, Rome’s main infectious disease hospital, announced that 10 patients were vaccined on Monday, and the hospital is expects to vaccinate around 200 people, as per Xinhua news agency.
It claims that it utilizes the two dose Jynneos vaccine that was developed to fight the spread of smallpox, but is believed to work against the disease since the monkeypox virus and the smallpox virus are closely connected.
The vaccine is only administered to adults.
Although the Jynneos vaccine isn’t new but there aren’t many stockpiles of the vaccine in Italy according to reports.
Media reports also revealed that the amount of vaccinations requested late Monday had surpassed 600, and was increasing.
The first Italian instance of monkeypox was discovered in Rome in May and since then, Italy has identified at most 545 cases.
Monkeypox is an infectious zoonotic disease that is most often seen in the tropical rain forests of central and west Africa according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The symptoms include the appearance of sores that are open, fever as well as rashes and swelling of lymph nodes.
The WHO has officially announced that the current monkeypox outbreak that is spreading outside of the traditional endemic areas in Africa is already transformed into an international public health crisis of international significance.
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