DUBLIN: Ireland to start administering vaccine against monkeypox to prevent the spread of the disease.
Last week, the government approved National Immunisation Advisory Committee’s (NIAC) recommendations to vaccinate gay and bisexual men, other men who have sex with men, as well as others at higher risk of unsafe exposure.
Vaccination is being considered as 97 people have been diagnosed with monkeypox in Ireland so far. The Department of Health and the HSE have already started preparations for the vaccination programme.
Lucy Jessop, director of the HSE’s National Immunization Office, said the vaccines were being offered to people who had been in close contact with people who had confirmed monkeypox. She said that the HSE were still working on the rollout of vaccines to high-risk groups.
“In terms of people who are particularly at risk of this disease, it’s people who have multiple sexual partners, including some groups of men who have sex with men, but in terms of the risk to the broader population, that risk is very low, so it isn’t a vaccine programme that will be offered more widely than that,” Ms Jessop said.