The Netherlands will vaccinate risk groups against monkeypox

The Hague, July 8. The Dutch government announced today that it will begin preventively vaccinating groups at high risk of infection with the monkeypox virus as soon as possible, following expert recommendations and after confirming some 400 cases of infection in the Netherlands.

In a letter sent to the Dutch Parliament, Health Minister Ernst Kuipers explained that the vaccination is intended for some 32,000 “high-risk” people, including men and transgender people who use or want to start using PrEP ( pre-exposure prophylaxis), a pill that can reduce the risk of contracting HIV.

Men and transgender people who are HIV-positive and at high risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), as well as “sex workers,” will also receive the vaccine.

“A group of approximately 2,000 people from the HIV-PrEp target group in Amsterdam will be vaccinated as soon as possible, while preparations for vaccination of the broader target group are made in parallel,” Kuipers said.

People who qualify for vaccination will receive an invitation letter and the injection will consist of two doses four weeks apart.

The minister stressed that it is “very important that people with symptoms or possible exposure remain cautious, even after vaccination” and recalled that “after all, the vaccine will take several weeks to provide protection, especially in people who need two doses. , and the vaccine will not offer complete protection.”

In addition, he warned that the number of confirmed cases in the world continues to increase and “it cannot be ruled out that as the virus spreads, it will also spread beyond the group of men who have sex with men”, which already It happens “occasionally”.

Of the 400 cases diagnosed to date in the Netherlands, there is a child of primary school age and a woman.

However, the minister expressed his hope that this vaccination campaign for risk groups “prevents monkeypox from spreading further and becoming an endemic disease that we can no longer control.” EFE

ir / cat / jgb

–