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The first vaccine against Mpox has been approved by the WHO. Bavarian Nordic produces it. Special rules apply to children.
The World Health Organization has approved the first vaccine against Mpox for adults. The product, made by Bavarian Nordic A/S, can also be used in minors in certain cases, the WHO said on Friday. “This first prequalification of a vaccine against Mpox is an important step in our fight against the disease,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The prequalification allows organizations such as the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) to purchase the vaccine. However, supply is limited because there is only one manufacturer.
Speaking of vaccinations, many social media posts claim that Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) is actually herpes zoster (shingles). This, in turn, is a side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine. The renaming hides the side effects and has the added benefit of allowing more vaccines against Mpox to be sold.
The claim is false: Mpox and herpes zoster are caused by different viruses. Both diseases have been recognized for decades. While Mpox is an acute infection caused by exposure to the Mpox virus, herpes zoster is caused by reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus, which lies dormant in the body after chickenpox. In rare cases, such reactivation occurs due to COVID-19 vaccination or COVID-19 infection.
Mpox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox, but it causes milder symptoms such as fever, chills, and body aches. More severe cases can damage the face, hands, chest, and genitals.
The disease is particularly rampant in the Congo. On Thursday, the African Disease Control Center announced that 107 new deaths and 3160 new cases had been registered in the past week. According to the center, 70 percent of the cases in Congo occurred in children under 15. In this group, 85 fatal cases were also recorded.
- source: heute.at/picture: Image by Frauke Riether from Pixabay
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