There are approximately 16 million approved doses of the monkeypox vaccine for use against monkeypox, and other candidates are under consideration, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Most of the vaccines are stored in bulk, meaning it will take several months to be put into vials, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
Bavarian Nordic’s Imvamune or MVA-BN vaccine, which is commonly used to treat smallpox, is approved by Canada, the United States and the European Union.
Read more: Monkeypox declared a global health emergency. Are curbs needed for travel?
Two other vaccines – LC16 and ACAM-2000 – are also being considered, the WHO chief said, urging countries with stockpiles to share doses while supplies are limited.
“We still lack data on the effectiveness of monkeypox vaccines or how many doses might be needed,” Tedros told reporters during a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
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Monkeypox was declared a global health emergency by the WHO on Saturday.
2:01 Doctors are worried that upcoming events could lead to a spike in monkeypox cases. Doctors are worried that the upcoming events could lead to a spike in cases of monkeypox
Worldwide, more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 78 countries, with at least 70 percent in Europe. About 10 percent of patients have been hospitalized in the current outbreak and five have died, all in Africa, the WHO said.
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Canada has confirmed 745 cases of monkeypox as of July 26, but those numbers are expected to rise, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
However, the UN health agency does not currently recommend mass vaccination, Tedros said. He recommends vaccination only for high-risk groups, including healthcare workers and men who have sex with men with multiple sexual partners.
The WHO estimates that between five million and 10 million doses of vaccine will be needed to protect all high-risk groups.
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Read more: Canadian health officials keep up-to-date on monkeypox after WHO declares emergency
Imvamune is a two-dose vaccine. WHO experts warned that it takes several weeks after receiving the second dose of the vaccine to be fully protected, so people should take other precautions until then.
They also called for more research into the effectiveness of monkeypox vaccines.
“We don’t have the data right now to say with confidence that a vaccine is the best approach for this,” said Dr. Soumya Swamintham, the WHO’s chief scientist.
1:56 Hundreds of cases of monkeypox reported in Canada Hundreds of cases of monkeypox reported in Canada
In Canada, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) issued new guidelines last month that say anyone at high risk of exposure to a probable or confirmed case of monkeypox, or anyone who has visited an area where the virus is being transmitted, should get one dose of the Imvamune vaccine.
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Vaccines are offered to people who have been exposed to monkeypox, as well as to at-risk groups. Appointments can be made online or by phone through community health units.
To date, the Government of Canada has deployed more than 70,000 doses of Imvamune to provinces and territories.
The CEO of Danish company Bavarian Nordic said it is in talks to potentially expand production capacity for its vaccine.
Bavarian has an annual production capacity of 30 million doses, including the smallpox vaccine and other vaccines it produces.
— with files from Reuters
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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