After Denmark became the latest country to be hit by the monkeypox outbreak, European countries will be instructed to establish a vaccine plan to combat the spreading disease.
According to the news website, EU authorities are planning to release a risk assessment that will urge all member states to develop an immunisation strategy to combat the spread of the tropical virus.
Although there is no monkeypox vaccine, smallpox vaccinations, which were routinely given to British citizens until the virus was eradicated four decades ago, are 85 per cent effective, according to a news website.
The strategy that is expected to be proposed is the same one that is now in use in Britain. Officials were aiming to stop the spread of monkeypox by immunising all close relatives of the 20 confirmed cases, including NHS workers.
The ring vaccination strategy involves jabbing and monitoring anyone around an infected individual to form a buffer of immune people to limit the disease’s spread.
It comes as experts warn that if the World Health Organization (WHO) deems the epidemic an emergency, countries may impose travel restrictions to stop the spread of the disease.
However, according to the news website, the vaccine, called Imvanex, and manufactured by Danish manufacturer Bavarian Nordic, has not been approved for use against monkeypox in Europe or the United Kingdom.
In 2013, the European Medicines Agency authorised the vaccine for smallpox, and the US Food and Drug Administration approved it for both illnesses in 2019.
There is also no information on how safe it is for immunocompromised persons or children, who are the ones most at risk from the outbreak.
It comes after WHO officials were told on Saturday of 92 confirmed cases and 28 suspected infections, the majority of which were identified in Europe.
According to the news website, the actual toll will be many times higher, with top experts warning that communal transmission means some of the spread would certainly go unnoticed. Gay and bisexual men account for a disproportionate number of cases.
