The United States is deploying an enhanced nationwide vaccination strategy to counter the continuing spread of monkeypox, federal public health officials announced at a White House briefing on Tuesday.
RELATED: What Is Monkeypox, and How Worried Should Americans Be?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is rapidly expanding access to hundreds of thousands of doses of the Jynneos vaccine, targeted to smallpox and its viral cousin monkeypox. Vaccine doses will be used to protect those Americans deemed to be at higher risk of contracting the virus, according to federal officials. But how do you know if you should get the vaccine?
Here are the people whom the CDC recommends receive the Jynneos vaccine for monkeypox:
Right now, those at the highest risk include anyone who’s had close physical contact or sexual contact with a person with a known case of monkeypox.
Also at high risk are gay and bisexual men who “have recently had multiple sex partners in a venue where there was known to be monkeypox or in an area where monkeypox is spreading,” the CDC said in a statement.
RELATED: Monkeypox On The Rise In The LBGTQ Community, Here’s How To Stay Safe
If you are a health care provider in the U.S. that has come in contact with patients with confirmed or probable cases of monkeypox, you should get the Jynneous vaccine.
The CDC also urges clinicians to keep a close eye out for patients who have rashes or lesions that look like monkeypox, especially those who have recently traveled to Central or West Africa or certain parts of Europe where monkeypox has been detected.
Up to now, officials have recommended vaccination only for those detected through contact tracing for potential monkeypox exposure, Walensky said at the Tuesday briefing.
That strategy has been largely driven by vaccine shortages, according to Walensky.
However, “now we are recommending that vaccines be provided to both people with known monkeypox exposures who are contacted by public health, and also to those people who’ve been recently exposed to
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