10 augustus 2022
16:39
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Next week, twelve HIV reference centers must vaccinate as many people as possible at risk of monkey pox. The group of people who can get a preventive shot remains small because Belgium has too few vaccines.
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The African monkeypox virus first appeared in Belgium at the end of May. Since then, 546 people have been infected in our country. In most cases (91%) it concerns men who have sex with men. The epidemic may have initially spread through events in the gay scene, so that the virus mainly circulates in that group.
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The monkeypox virus is rarely fatal or seriously ill. Of the 546 Belgian patients, 28 have so far been hospitalized, in most cases because the typical blisters are very painful.
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According to previous studies, the classic smallpox vaccine protects well against monkeypox. Preventive vaccination can reduce the transmission of the virus and thus prevent the virus from spreading around. Some countries are already vaccinating preventatively. In the Netherlands, all men who take the HIV prevention pill PrEP receive an invitation and in France everyone who runs an increased risk of monkey pox can get an injection.
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old stock
But Belgium does not have enough vaccines to vaccinate a wide public as a preventive measure. ‘The Netherlands and France had already supplemented their strategic stock of smallpox vaccines before the outbreak of the monkeypox epidemic with third-generation vaccines,’ explains Federal Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit). ‘Belgium has not done that. I can’t say why that didn’t happen. We have to discuss that in government.’
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The Belgian stock still consists of an older type of vaccine, with more serious side effects.
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The Belgian stock still consists of an older type of vaccine, with more serious side effects. ‘But the disadvantage of the side effects does not outweigh the risks of monkeypox,’ says Vandenbroucke.
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Of the most modern Jynneos vaccine, with fewer side effects, Belgium received 3,040 doses from the European purchase of 160,000 vaccines. But the distribution of the first 100,000 doses among the member states did not take into account the vaccines that countries had in stock.
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Vandenbroucke wants to address this point at the next meeting of the European health ministers in early September. ‘It is not yet on the agenda, but I am making contacts to discuss the European approach there,’ says the minister.
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