Does the smallpox vaccine protect against monkeypox? | WORLD

But the vast majority of cases are still in men who have sex with men (although that could change). Last week, that led to questions about who should be looking for monkeypox vaccines.

In response, many wonder if they are already protected by having received the smallpox vaccines, which were included among the routine childhood immunizations in the United States until 1972. The WHO declared the world free of smallpox in 1980.

“It’s often hailed as one of the greatest achievements in public health,” says Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“Monkeypox is another orthopoxid virus and is closely related to the virus that causes smallpox,” says Wallace. “Because of the similarities between the viruses, the smallpox vaccine has been shown to be 85% effective in preventing monkeypox in clinical trials.”

But he adds that smallpox vaccines also lose effectiveness over time.

“Smallpox vaccination can protect you by about 85% from monkeypox infection for about three to five years,” she says. “After that time, its ability to protect you against infection decreases, but experts believe it would still protect against a serious disease state.”

If smallpox still existed today, those who received vaccinations, including the entire baby boomer generation, might have had to get a smallpox booster. But the eradication of the virus has made it unnecessary.

“Since we stopped vaccinating against smallpox decades ago, it’s not entirely surprising to epidemiologists that we have a current outbreak of monkeypox because we’ve had an increasingly susceptible population ever since,” Wallace says.

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