Nathan Jeffay is the health and science correspondent for The Times of Israel
The first ape pox vaccines in Israel will be reserved for men who have sex with men (MSM) and whose medical records recommend maximum vulnerability to the virus.
Following Israel’s resolution to secure 10,000 apepox vaccines, Dr. Tal Brosh, coordinator of Israel’s epidemic control team and chair of its deliberations on the national reaction to monkeypox, briefed The Times of Israel on the criteria for administering them.
They will arrive in two batches, with 2000 to come, followed by 8,000, he said Tuesday, speaking of the vaccine announcement through the Health Ministry a day earlier.
Brosh said that since almost all cases of monkeypox in Israel have affected MSM so much, it is half of all recently ordered vaccines.
“The epidemiology of the outbreak is such that it is spreading a lot among men who have sex with men, and although the criteria are not yet definitive, it will consult them,” he said.
Israel reported its first case of monkeypox in May, a type that returned from abroad, and community spread was first detected last month. Cases are a fear because the virus is contagious and, although benign, can cause serious illness.
On Monday, 101 men were infected, the ministry said, monkeypox regularly disappears after two to four weeks, according to the World Health Organization.
Monkeypox is characterized by a rash that could resemble pimples or blisters, from which the virus can be transmitted, through skin-to-skin contact.
Brosh noted that sex is the only contact in which monkeypox can be transmitted, and said other skin-to-skin contact, such as between members of a circle of relatives, can potentially explain many cases as the virus continues to spread.
Brosh said the first 2,000 vaccines will be reserved for MSM who have had a sexually transmitted disease in recent months (the precise diversity will be between 3 and 6 months) and who are SEROpositive or in pre-exposure prophylaxis, which are HIV drugs to them.
“The purpose here is to locate the other people who are at the highest risk of becoming infected, that is, the men who have more partners,” Brosh said. “Basically, your HMOs will be known according to the criteria explained. “
He added that the criteria may be straightforward for the next 8,000 shots, but they will remain heavily focused on MSM.
For all initial vaccine allocations, the fitness budget will erase your virtual data, as it did for early COVID vaccination campaigns, to make lists of those who are eligible for vaccines and then touch them.
Brosh, who heads the infectious diseases branch at Assuta Medical Centre in Ashdod, said a main fear is that if the number of cases increases, some of the people inflamed will be other people with a history of fitness problems, adding those who are immunocompromised, and the virus can have a devastating effect on some. This is what underlies the strain for early action through vaccination.
He commented, “As more and more cases occur, there can be very significant morbidity. “It can be very disabling. Once it spreads and we have thousands of them, it will infect other immunocompromised people, pregnant women, young people and other people on whom it can have a negative impact.
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