Reuters
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NOS News•today, 20:25
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In the Netherlands, 503 cases of monkey pox have been identified, 101 more than last Thursday. It is the largest increase since May, when the virus started to spread in the Netherlands.
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The Ministry of Health wants to start vaccinating risk groups as soon as possible, Minister Kuipers wrote last week to the House of Representatives† However, this must happen faster, and it must reach a broader group than the ministry currently envisages, according to experts by experience, organizations involved and an Amsterdam GP with many patients in the risk group.
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The vaccinations against monkey pox begin with a pilot in Amsterdam that is aimed at about 2000 people who receive PrEP or are on the waiting list for it. PrEP is a drug that protects against infection with HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS.
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Too limited
This group will then be expanded nationally to more than 30,000 people, including people who are HIV-positive or at high risk for an STI. People who have had close contact with an infected person are already eligible for a vaccine.
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Anyone can contract the virus. The reason that this group can now receive the vaccine is that almost all confirmed cases of monkey pox so far occur in men who have sex with other men and have different sexual contacts, says Kuipers.
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According to Richard Keldoulis, spokesperson for action group PrEPnu, the government is now describing the risk groups too narrowly. “We would like to see that not only the people who receive PrEP or are known at the STI clinics qualify for vaccination, but the entire group of men who have sex with men and have different sexual relationships,” he says. According to him, that is significantly more than the 32,000 that are now mentioned in the letter.
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General practitioner Adrie Heijnen agrees. He has a practice in Amsterdam and half of his patients are men who have sex with men. He is treating twenty patients who have the virus. Heijnen fears that it will be extremely difficult to explain to people why they do or do not belong to the vaccination group.
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Here’s what we now know about monkey pox:
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This is what we now know about monkey pox
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In any case, the vaccines come too late for 24-year-old Jurriaan from Amsterdam. He contracted the virus at the end of May, shortly after the first infections were detected in the Netherlands.
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Jurriaan, who does not want to be called by his last name for privacy reasons, calls the decision to vaccinate risk groups smart. “But the government must also make the vaccine available to other men in Amsterdam who are not on PrEP or on the waiting list and who would like to have the vaccine.”
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By being vaccinated, I feel like I can do something about it.
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Doctor Jordy (31) from Amsterdam has now been vaccinated. He had come into contact with a patient who later turned out to be infected. He could and did get vaccinated. “In the scene I live in, the virus is going around a lot,” he explains. “By getting vaccinated, I feel like I can do something about it.”
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He thinks that a vaccination campaign is being launched. “But a lot of people around me wonder why it’s taking so long,” he says. “If vaccines are already available, why not give them faster?”
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Extra vaccines
Soa Aids Nederland also calls on the cabinet to quickly expand vaccination to a much larger group. “All men who have sex with men and transgender people with varying sexual contacts,” it reads a reaction† “In order to make this possible, consideration should already be given to purchasing additional vaccines.”
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A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health says that enough vaccines are available for the time being, even if the risk group is considered to be larger at a later stage.
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When asked why the latter is not already happening, he answers: “We want to vaccinate people who are at risk as targeted as possible. At a later moment it may be necessary to broaden this group. Then we will again ask for advice from experts. “
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The GGD in Amsterdam hopes to start vaccinating the first 2000 people within a few weeks, a spokesperson said. The RIVM also assumes a few weeks.
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