© REUTERS
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A handful of healthcare providers in our country have already received a vaccine against the monkeypox virus. That says the Flemish Agency for Care and Health on Thursday.
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Bron: BELGIAN
Today at 18:05-
According to spokesperson Joris Moonens, the health care providers received the vaccine after a risky contact when taking a sample. The vaccine, Imvanex from the Danish company Bavarian Nordic, is ideally administered within five days of contact, but it can also be administered afterwards. It is a vaccine against smallpox that would also be effective against monkeypox. The FDA has already approved its use in the United States. This is not yet the case in Europe. For the time being, administration is “off label”.
Current guidelines for the vaccine, while it is still limited in availability, stipulate that health professionals who have had high-risk contact, as well as health care providers with an immune problem, can receive the vaccine, Moonens says. Zorg en Gezondheid says that in addition, non-health workers after a high-risk contact or persons with immune problems are eligible for the vaccine.
On Tuesday it was announced that the European Commission has signed a contract with Bavarian Nordic for the purchase of almost 110,000 vaccines that Member States can use in the fight against monkey pox. The first doses would be delivered at the end of June. Belgium also subscribed to the purchase.
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