July 13, 2022
Bloomberg reports the continued spread of monkeypox across the United States and the world has led the CDC to develop a vaccine protocol for children. If needed, the agency will call to allow Bavarian Nordic A/S’s Jynneos vaccine for children. Currently, the vaccine is only cleared for use in adults.
Though the outbreak has been mainly among men who have sex with men, the infectious disease’s quick spread places other populations at risk. In addition to acquiring doses of the Jynneos vaccine, efforts have been made to expand testing to commercial labs to further monitor the outbreak and its spread and to aid hospitals in developing their own tests.
There are 36,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine in the Strategic National Stockpile and the CDC expects approximately 500,000 courses to be delivered this year with another approximately 7.9 million courses that the U.S. could receive, if needed. Jynneos is administered in two shots, spaced four weeks apart. The country also has access to doses of Emergent BioSolutions Inc.’s ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine, which can be used against monkeypox.
CDC has plans to conduct a genomic sequencing study of monkeypox and determine how much of the country may possess antibodies. Through this sequencing the agency hopes to understand any mutations that may be involved in the outbreak. Evidence to date suggests the virus behaves as anticipated, appears more stable than other viruses and won’t likely undergo mutations at the rate of COVID-19.
Improving the health of children worldwide through philanthropic support of scientific and educational programs.
