![US in process of releasing monkeypox vaccine from national stockpile for ‘high-risk’ people, CDC says](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/04/904f7935-b0b6-5152-83b9-d19d0a0f1131/628cc1e5acd77.preview.jpg?crop=1919,1079,0,0&resize=1120,630&order=crop,resize)
The United States is responding to a request for the release of monkeypox vaccine from the nation’s Strategic National Stockpile as a global outbreak of cases is under investigation.
There is one confirmed case of monkeypox and four suspected cases in the United States, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.
“I can report that there has been a request for release of the Jynneos vaccine from the National Stockpile for some of the high-risk contacts of some of the early patients, so that is actively happening right now,” Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology within the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said Monday.
McQuiston said the United States has a “good stock” of vaccine because it has been preparing for the possibility of needing to use doses for smallpox.
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In the United States, the two-dose Jynneos vaccine is licensed to prevent smallpox and specifically to prevent monkeypox.
“Right now, we have over 1,000 doses of that available, and we expect that level to ramp up very quickly in the coming weeks as the company provides more doses to us,” McQuiston said.
There is another smallpox vaccine licensed in the United States, ACAM2000, that could be used to prevent monkeypox, she said, and the country has more than 100 million doses.
“ACAM2000 is an older-generation smallpox vaccine that has some potential significant side effects with it. So a decision to use that widely would have to have some serious discussion behind it,” McQuiston said.
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The United States is responding to a request for the release of monkeypox vaccine from the nation’s Strategic National Stockpile as a global outbreak of cases is under investigation.
Overall, “we are hoping to maximize vaccine distribution to those that we know would benefit from it,” she said. “Those are people who’ve had contact with a known monkeypox patients, health care workers, very close personal contact, and those in particular who might be at high risk for severe disease.”
The confirmed US monkeypox case is in a man in Massachusetts, and the four cases of orthopox are in men in New York, Florida and Utah, the CDC says. Orthopox refers to pox viruses in general.
McQuiston said health care providers should assume that these orthopox cases are monkeypox.
“It is likely that there are going to be additional cases reported in the United States,” she said.
McQuiston said the CDC expects to receive samples from the four suspected cases “today or tomorrow” for further analysis. Labs within the CDC’s Laboratory Response Network can test for an orthopox virus, and then confirmation of monkeypox specifically is done at the agency through PCR tests, which take “a couple of hours” to run, she said.
“From the time that CDC gets a specimen, we could do our monkeypox confirmatory PCR tests likely the same day. We’ve been seeing turnaround of a couple of days really, from the time a suspect patient might come to a doctor’s attention to they can get that initial state LRN laboratory results,” McQuiston said.
CDC sequencing of the sample from the confirmed case in Massachusetts went “really quickly,” and within 48 hours, researchers were able to see that it closely matched that of a case in Portugal.
“This process previously took up to two weeks, but we were able to get it posted within two days because we feel like this kind of public sharing of early sequence data is going to be important for all countries to do so that we can all better understand how the virus is spreading across the globe,” McQuiston said.
Monkeypox is not spread through sex itself but can be spread through contact during sex, said Dr. John Brooks, the CDC’s chief medical officer of HIV prevention.
“Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted infection in the typical sense, but it can be transmitted during sexual and intimate content, as well as with personal contact and shared bedding and clothing,” Brooks said Monday.
Anyone can get or spread monkeypox, but a “notable fraction of cases” in the latest global outbreak are happening among gay and bisexual men.
“Some groups may have a greater chance of exposure right now, but by no means is the current risk of exposure to monkeypox exclusively to the gay and bisexual community in the US,” Brooks said. “Anyone, anyone, can develop [and] spread monkeypox infection, but … many of those affected in the current global outbreak identified as gay and bisexual men.”
Brooks said the CDC decided to hold a news conference about the outbreak now because LGBTQ Pride month usually kicks off around the Memorial Day weekend, and officials wanted to make sure the community was aware of the situation. He also urged doctors to be on the lookout for the disease, because it can look like other types of STDs.
He said the rash is “showing up in different parts of the body than we typically expect to see it.”
“In some cases, it has produced anal or genital lesions that look like other diseases like herpes, chickenpox or syphilis. So anyone with a rash or lesion around or involving their genitals, their anus or any other place that they have not seen it before, get fully evaluated, both for that rash but particularly for sexually transmitted infection and other illnesses that can cause rash,” he said.
“What we’re trying to do by bringing attention to the fact that some of these cases have had a genital and perianal presentation is just to remind people that people may come in for an evaluation of what they think is an STD, but we’d like the provider to think ‘could it be monkeypox as well?’ if the circumstances fit the story.”
What is monkeypox and where is it spreading?
What is monkeypox?
![What is monkeypox?](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/f4/7f457fc0-e13f-536a-a9eb-577b706c9752/62865efc30eb3.image.jpg?resize=200%2C133 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/f4/7f457fc0-e13f-536a-a9eb-577b706c9752/62865efc30eb3.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/f4/7f457fc0-e13f-536a-a9eb-577b706c9752/62865efc30eb3.image.jpg?resize=400%2C266 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/f4/7f457fc0-e13f-536a-a9eb-577b706c9752/62865efc30eb3.image.jpg?resize=540%2C360 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/f4/7f457fc0-e13f-536a-a9eb-577b706c9752/62865efc30eb3.image.jpg?resize=750%2C500 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/f4/7f457fc0-e13f-536a-a9eb-577b706c9752/62865efc30eb3.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C799 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/f4/7f457fc0-e13f-536a-a9eb-577b706c9752/62865efc30eb3.image.jpg?resize=1700%2C1132 1700w)
Monkeypox is a virus that originates in wild animals like rodents and primates, and occasionally jumps to people. Most human cases have been in central and west Africa, where the disease is endemic.
The illness was first identified by scientists in 1958 when there were two outbreaks of a “pox-like” disease in research monkeys — thus the name monkeypox. The first known human infection was in 1970, in a 9-year-old boy in a remote part of Congo.
What are the symptoms and how is it treated?
![What are the symptoms and how is it treated?](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/c9/4c92280e-1141-5bc7-ae85-b2b3d12f422c/628c0d137b2de.image.jpg?resize=200%2C128 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/c9/4c92280e-1141-5bc7-ae85-b2b3d12f422c/628c0d137b2de.image.jpg?resize=300%2C192 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/c9/4c92280e-1141-5bc7-ae85-b2b3d12f422c/628c0d137b2de.image.jpg?resize=400%2C255 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/c9/4c92280e-1141-5bc7-ae85-b2b3d12f422c/628c0d137b2de.image.jpg?resize=540%2C345 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/c9/4c92280e-1141-5bc7-ae85-b2b3d12f422c/628c0d137b2de.image.jpg?resize=750%2C479 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/c9/4c92280e-1141-5bc7-ae85-b2b3d12f422c/628c0d137b2de.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C766 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/c9/4c92280e-1141-5bc7-ae85-b2b3d12f422c/628c0d137b2de.image.jpg?resize=1700%2C1086 1700w)
Monkeypox belongs to the same virus family as smallpox but causes milder symptoms.
Most patients experience only fever, body aches, chills and fatigue. People with more serious illness may develop a rash and lesions on the face and hands that can spread to other parts of the body.
The incubation period is from about five days to three weeks. Most people recover within about two to four weeks without needing to be hospitalized.
Monkeypox can be fatal for up to one in 10 people and is thought to be more severe in children.
People exposed to the virus are often given one of several smallpox vaccines, which have been shown to be effective against monkeypox. Anti-viral drugs are also being developed.
On Thursday, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommended all suspected cases be isolated and that high-risk contacts be offered the smallpox vaccine.
How many monkeypox cases are there typically?
![How many monkeypox cases are there typically?](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/61/561fa7e1-2a3e-5bf2-9ff1-9059af5b341c/628c0d147e447.image.jpg?resize=200%2C133 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/61/561fa7e1-2a3e-5bf2-9ff1-9059af5b341c/628c0d147e447.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/61/561fa7e1-2a3e-5bf2-9ff1-9059af5b341c/628c0d147e447.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/61/561fa7e1-2a3e-5bf2-9ff1-9059af5b341c/628c0d147e447.image.jpg?resize=540%2C360 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/61/561fa7e1-2a3e-5bf2-9ff1-9059af5b341c/628c0d147e447.image.jpg?resize=750%2C500 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/61/561fa7e1-2a3e-5bf2-9ff1-9059af5b341c/628c0d147e447.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C800 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/61/561fa7e1-2a3e-5bf2-9ff1-9059af5b341c/628c0d147e447.image.jpg?resize=1700%2C1133 1700w)
The World Health Organization estimates there are thousands of monkeypox infections in about a dozen African countries every year. Most are in Congo, which reports about 6,000 cases annually, and Nigeria, with about 3,000 cases a year.
Patchy health monitoring systems mean many infected people are likely missed, experts say.
Isolated cases of monkeypox are occasionally spotted outside Africa, including in the U.S. and Britain. The cases are typically associated with travel to Africa or contact with animals from areas where the disease is more common.
In 2003, 47 people in six U.S. states had confirmed or probable cases. They caught the virus from pet prairie dogs that been housed near imported small mammals from Ghana.
What’s different about these cases?
![What's different about these cases?](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/63/9630fa80-0127-5d26-a6e8-adf01ba28a28/628c0d156bf69.image.jpg?resize=200%2C135 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/63/9630fa80-0127-5d26-a6e8-adf01ba28a28/628c0d156bf69.image.jpg?resize=300%2C203 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/63/9630fa80-0127-5d26-a6e8-adf01ba28a28/628c0d156bf69.image.jpg?resize=400%2C270 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/63/9630fa80-0127-5d26-a6e8-adf01ba28a28/628c0d156bf69.image.jpg?resize=540%2C365 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/63/9630fa80-0127-5d26-a6e8-adf01ba28a28/628c0d156bf69.image.jpg?resize=750%2C507 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/63/9630fa80-0127-5d26-a6e8-adf01ba28a28/628c0d156bf69.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C811 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/63/9630fa80-0127-5d26-a6e8-adf01ba28a28/628c0d156bf69.image.jpg?resize=1700%2C1150 1700w)
It’s the first time monkeypox appears to be spreading among people who didn’t travel to Africa.
In Europe, infections have been reported in Britain, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Most of the cases involve men who have had sex with men.
Britain’s Health Security Agency said its cases are not all connected, suggesting that there are multiple chains of transmission happening.
The infections in Portugal were picked up at a sexual health clinic, where the men sought help for lesions on their genitals.
On Wednesday, U.S. officials reported one case of monkeypox in a man who had recently traveled to Canada, where authorities are investigating potential infections.
Is monkeypox being spread through sex?
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It’s possible, but it’s unclear at the moment.
Monkeypox has not previously been documented to have spread through sex, but it can be transmitted through close contact with infected people, their body fluids and their clothing or bedsheets.
Michael Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London, said it’s still too early to determine how the men in the U.K. were infected.
“By nature, sexual activity involves intimate contact, which one would expect to increase the likelihood of transmission, whatever a person’s sexual orientation and irrespective of the mode of transmission,” Skinner said.
Francois Balloux of University College London said monkeypox said sex qualifies as the kind of close contact needed to transmit the disease.
The U.K. cases “do not necessarily imply any recent change in the virus’ route of transmission,” Balloux said.
___
Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
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