(Reuters) – The UK government has ordered more than 150,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine to boost its preparedness against a new form of the virus currently spreading in African countries.
While no cases of clade I mpox have yet been detected in the UK, the strain has rapidly spread outside the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the latest outbreak began, among its neighbors.
“We are preparing for any cases that we might see in the UK and vaccination plays a vital part in our defences,” said Susan Hopkins, chief medical advisor at the UK Health Security Agency.
The government plans to offer the vaccine to those eligible in stages, and based on clinical needs.
The government has agreed that gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men, certain healthcare workers and specialist healthcare and humanitarian workers who go to affected countries and close contacts of a confirmed mpox case should be offered vaccination.
The World Health Organization last Friday approved Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine and set up a scheme to help bring the vaccine, tests and other treatments to the most vulnerable people in the world’s poorest countries.
Some countries have pledged to donate doses of mpox vaccines to countries in Africa.
The European Union has pledged to share 215,000 doses with the affected African countries and also urged its members to coordinate their donations rather than do them individually.
(Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
