The European Union will purchase 110,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine.
This was stated by Health Commissioner Stella Kiriakides, reports Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
The agreement is planned to be signed on June 16 to receive the first doses by the end of the month. Kyriakides did not specify the manufacturer of the vaccine, nor its type — whether it is a regular smallpox vaccine that is effective, including against monkeypox, or an adapted drug.
There are currently 900 cases of monkeypox in the EU. There are about 1,400 recorded cases in the world.
- Smallpox has already been found in some of Ukraineʼs neighbors, such as Poland and Romania. Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Ihor Kuzin believes that monkeypox will be in the country, but it is being localized. He assesses the risks for Ukraine as rather low.
- Smallpox is a rare infection that is mostly spread by wild animals in West and Central Africa. You can get this disease from contact with an infected animal, but scientists are not sure that it is from monkeys — in their opinion, rodents transmit smallpox to humans. A person can catch monkeypox if it is bitten by an infected animal or if a person comes in contact with an animalʼs fluid: blood, feces, saliva, etc. You can also become infected if you eat undercooked meat. At the same time, the disease is very rare and easily transmitted between people.
- Monkeypox is characterized by fever and rashes. There is no special vaccine against monkeypox, but scientists believe that the vaccine against smallpox is also effective. In addition, it can be injected after contact with an infected person — it will greatly facilitate the course of the disease.