Monkeypox outbreak can be eliminated in Europe -WHO
STORY: There are encouraging signs of a sustained week-on-week decline in the onset of cases in many European countries, including France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Britain, as well as a slowdown in some parts of the United States, despite scarce vaccine supplies.
"We believe we can eliminate sustained human-to-human transmission of monkeypox in the (European) region," said WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge.
The rollout of Bavarian Nordic's BAVA.CO monkeypox vaccine has been affected by limited supply of the shot, which is also approved to prevent smallpox, although regulators are taking steps to stretch out existing stocks.
In addition to the vaccine supply crunch, given the time it takes to deploy the vaccine and for it to take effect, the significant factors behind the slowdown appear to be earlier detection, which leads to patients isolating themselves sooner, and behavioral changes, Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency officer and monkeypox incident manager at WHO/Europe told a briefing.
