The health authorities are responding to the shortage of vaccines by administering the monkey pox vaccine to the upper layer of the skin.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced at a press conference on the 9th that it has approved a new procedure for immunization against monkey pox.
First, the FDA made it possible to administer the vaccine differently to people over the age of 18. It is an intradermal injection method that is injected into the upper layer of the skin rather than subcutaneously injected deep into the skin.
Through this, the health authorities expected that five doses of the vaccine could be obtained from one inoculation.
Based on data from a 2015 clinical trial, the FDA explained that the immune response was similar between those who received a fifth of the vaccine by intradermal injection and those who received the subcutaneous injection.
He added that the new vaccination method could “increase the number of available vaccines by up to five times.” However, he added that it is still necessary to receive two doses of the vaccine 4 weeks apart.
The FDA has also approved vaccination for people under the age of 18 who are at high risk of infection.
To this end, the FDA explained that it reviewed the vaccine’s safety data and data on other vaccines given to children against smallpox.
The FDA’s approval of the new vaccination procedure came after announcing emergency use of the vaccine under a public health emergency declaration last week.
Although the number of people infected with monkey pox in the United States is increasing, there is a shortage of vaccines.
A total of 620,000 doses of the vaccine have been distributed across the United States, which is said to require an additional 440,000 doses. With the new inoculation method, 2.2 million inoculations are possible as a booster dose.
Health authorities have ordered an additional 5 million vaccines, which could be equivalent to 2,500 doses.
“We don’t see any major concerns about the safety of the new approach,” said Peter Marks, FDA Vaccine Director. He added that the number of children potentially exposed to the infected has increased in recent years.
There are currently about 9,000 cases of monkeypox in the United States, of which about one-fifth occurred in New York State.
It is known that most of them are men who have had same-sex intercourse.