04/08/2022
Elaine Ruth Fletcher
The United States is considering shifting to intradermal injections of Monkeypox vaccine that could potentially stretch one dose of the approved MVA-BN vaccine, available only in limited quantities, into five doses, said US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf on Thursday.
He was speaking at a press briefing minutes after Xavier Becerra, US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) said he would declare a national health emergency over the monkeypox outbreak, which has now 6,600 confirmed cases in the United States – making it the global hotspot for the virus, followed by Spain and Germany. Some 26,000 cases had been reported worldwide, as of Thursday – not including several thousand suspected cases in central and western Africa, where the disease is endemic, but testing capacity remains poor. ...
‘Dose-sparing’ at critical inflection point
“Given the continued spread of the virus we are at a critical inflection point, dictating the need for continued solutions,” said Califf. While he said that the US was “working closely with the manufacturer to accelerate the delivery of doses,” another solution could be to “allow health care providers to use an existing 1 doise vial to administer up to 5 separate doses.
“Under the proposed approach, a fifth of the proposed dose would be introduced intradermally,” he said, explaining this is a more “shallow injection” than the typical subcutaneous injection. But evidence suggests than if administered correctly, it could provide a powerful immune response for Monkeypox.
Elaine Ruth Fletcher
The United States is considering shifting to intradermal injections of Monkeypox vaccine that could potentially stretch one dose of the approved MVA-BN vaccine, available only in limited quantities, into five doses, said US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf on Thursday.
He was speaking at a press briefing minutes after Xavier Becerra, US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) said he would declare a national health emergency over the monkeypox outbreak, which has now 6,600 confirmed cases in the United States – making it the global hotspot for the virus, followed by Spain and Germany. Some 26,000 cases had been reported worldwide, as of Thursday – not including several thousand suspected cases in central and western Africa, where the disease is endemic, but testing capacity remains poor. ...
‘Dose-sparing’ at critical inflection point
“Given the continued spread of the virus we are at a critical inflection point, dictating the need for continued solutions,” said Califf. While he said that the US was “working closely with the manufacturer to accelerate the delivery of doses,” another solution could be to “allow health care providers to use an existing 1 doise vial to administer up to 5 separate doses.
“Under the proposed approach, a fifth of the proposed dose would be introduced intradermally,” he said, explaining this is a more “shallow injection” than the typical subcutaneous injection. But evidence suggests than if administered correctly, it could provide a powerful immune response for Monkeypox.
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