Vienna expands monkeypox vaccination offer

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Currently, demand far exceeds the available vaccine against monkeypox in Vienna. Starting next week, however, the vaccination offer will be expanded.

The City of Vienna is meeting the robust demand for vaccination against monkeypox (MPX) – more than 2,200 people have already registered for preventive immunization in the federal capital, and interest far exceeds the available vaccine. At the beginning of the coming week, the vaccination offer is extended, announced by the office of health city councilor Peter Hacker (SPÖ) on the weekend.

Further monkeypox vaccinations in Vienna are possible
More quickly than initially anticipated, Vienna has been allocated an additional 140 vaccine doses for pre-exposure vaccinations by the federal government. Since preventive vaccinations are given intradermally, i.e., under the skin, 140 doses are sufficient for 700 vaccinations. However, two vaccinations are required for complete immunization, which is why another 350 people can be immunized against monkeypox as a precaution with the “replenishment” for the time being.

The appointments for this will already be assigned today, Monday, September 26. All persons from the defined target groups who are preregistered will automatically receive a reminder by e-mail and SMS on that day. After that, the vaccination appointments can be booked. It should be noted that only those people who have updated their data can view the vaccination appointments on www.impfservice.wien. The appointments for the first 360 pre-exposure MPX vaccinations, which Vienna released last Monday, were fully booked within 25 minutes.

High demand for monkeypox vaccinations in Vienna.
The newly allocated doses will then be vaccinated starting Wednesday, September 28. Instead of the previous 18, 86 people per day can then be vaccinated – the city of Vienna has adapted its infrastructure to the demand. However, “it is impossible that all interested parties will get a vaccination appointment due to the enormous shortage of vaccines,” the Hacker office also told APA. The city of Vienna would have the infrastructure and the medical staff trained to provide all preregistered persons with a preventive vaccination within the shortest possible time. But because there are only 4,340 MPX vaccine doses in all of Austria, and the Ministry of Health has reserved two-thirds of them for post-exposure vaccinations, i.e., cases after proven contact with an infected person, a wider rollout of monkeypox vaccination appointments is not possible, a spokesman for the city health department explained.

After all, a decree from Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Green Party) had made it possible for the federal capital to call up an additional contingent of the vaccine in demand. This is because the decree stipulates that each federal state is entitled to do so as soon as it can be proven that 40 percent of the initial doses for pre-exposure vaccinations have been vaccinated. Vienna has long since exceeded this mark.

Who should get vaccinated against monkeypox?
Regarding vaccination against monkeypox, the National Vaccination Panel does not currently recommend vaccination of broad segments of the population but rather primarily of individuals with individual risk behaviors. These include, in particular, men with frequently changing same-sex sexual contacts. Healthcare workers who are exposed to a very high risk of exposure, such as those working in departments, outpatient clinics, or offices involved in diagnosing and treating persons infected with monkeypox, should also be immunized against monkeypox. The same applies to personnel in specialized laboratories working with orthopoxviruses, i.e., dealing with samples from monkeypox-infected persons or the virus itself.