Health has administered 27 monkeypox vaccines after receiving 1,500 doses last week
Home » Health » Health has administered 27 monkeypox vaccines after receiving 1,500 doses last week

Health has administered 27 monkeypox vaccines after receiving 1,500 doses last week

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One week after receiving the first doses of vaccines against monkey pox In Puerto Rico, until yesterday, Wednesday, only about 27 people had been inoculated on the islandconfirmed today, Thursday, the main medical officer of the Health Department, the doctor Iris Cardona.

“Puerto Rico received a total of 1,500 doses last week, and of those, as of yesterday, some 27 doses had been administered. We have distributed about 250 doses to 12 vaccination centers, and we will distribute the remaining doses next week”, indicated Dr. Cardona in an interview with The new day.

The main medical officer of Health reiterated that the process of distributing vaccines against monkeypox is different from that of formulations against COVID-19 Well, “there are some certification processes, that the refrigerators are ready (in the 23 centers identified as providers of the doses), that they have the correct temperatures and that the personnel who are going to vaccinate have the corresponding training.”

The federal government has made the vaccine available to US jurisdictions. JYNNEOS (also known as Imvamune or Imvanex), one of two drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA, in English).

Health confirmed, on Tuesday, 13 cases of monkeypox. Meanwhile, it keeps another 14 suspected cases under surveillance and 24 people under investigation.

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Failures in the communication of the centers

Given several complaints made to The new day about the lack of guidance in some places such as the Doctor Federico Trilla Hospital in the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in Carolina, identified as a provider of vaccines, Dr. Cardona indicated that they are already working on the situation to ensure that all staff is oriented to inform and serve citizens.

The pediatric infectologist explained that she understands that the lack of guidance is due to the fact that, in some hospitals, the providers of the monkeypox vaccines are specialized clinics that work independently of the central administration of the hospitals or clinics where they are located.

“I think that here it is an administrative issue (of the hospital) that (the administrative staff) do not know the processes. We are going to be fine-tuning that today (Thursday) or tomorrow with all the administrators. I want to emphasize that, at this time, things may change in a couple of weeks and if the cases continue to increase. First, there are not infinite amounts of vaccines, so you have to set priorities, ”he stressed.

For his part, the president of the Puerto Rico Infectious Diseases Society, Dr. Humberto Guiot, explained that, since there is a shortage of the vaccine, its administration will be a “well-organized” process, so it will be slower. However, he noted that the amount administered (27 doses) is relatively “low.”

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“Here it is planned that it be a vaccination limited to the populations that are identified as being at greater risk of infection, which is why it poses some limitations. It will not be like with other vaccines that have an indication for a wide range of people and there are also no unlimited supplies.”, explained the infectologist.

Dr. Guiot is concerned about the lack of guidance that some patients have received at service centers designated to vaccinate. “When we called some of the 23 centers that had been informed, the operationalization of how the vaccine was going to be administered was still not entirely clear. Some have not responded and others say they don’t have the vaccine,” he said.

“We are concerned because it has been identified that the growth of this virus, at a global level, has been much more accelerated than the authorities expected. Really, if you’re in an emergency like this, every day counts.Guiot warned.

In addition, Cardona explained that there are specific categories to identify people who need the vaccine right now. The first category, with the clinical designation of “post-exposure prophylaxis”, is for those people who had contact with a confirmed case. Of those cases, she shared that four people have been vaccinated.

The second (enlarged post-exposure prophylaxis) covers cases of people in whom direct contact has not been identified, but “they have engaged in risk activities, such as participating in crowded activities, having had intimate contact, very close at parties or private activities. with strangers or through social media platforms.”

Cardona indicated that the third category to be inoculated would be for anyone who had multiple sexual partners in the last two or three weeks. Cardona stressed that Health has a network of over 500 traditional vaccine service providers, which would be expanded if the level of contagion increases.

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“Vaccines we do not buy or have. The vaccines come from a program that the federal government has,” said Cardona.

Likewise, he explained that the first step that Health took was to study local infections to verify if it behaved the same as in the United States or in other countries of the world. Cardona stressed that, first, communication was established with the facilities that serve immunocompromised patients or people who have a sexually transmitted infection so that they could be providers of the first doses.

Cardona said that another factor that impacted attention to the virus in Puerto Rico was that, at first, no laboratory could do the tests to detect the virus. “For the test to be done here, it was done in a very short time, so the samples are being processed. We have a lab attached to the Department of Health that is doing this,” she shared.

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