By Mark Brown Aug 6, 2022 6:00 am
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit offers a limited supply of monkeypox vaccine.
The health unit will set up a monkeypox vaccine clinic on Sunday from 11am to 4pm at the Windsor-Essex PrideFest, centered in Lanspeary Park. Acting Medical Officer of Health Shankar Nesaturai said the clinic will target high-risk people.
“The term is sometimes described as ‘pre-exposure prophylaxis’ and this will be proposed at the Pride event this coming weekend,” Nesaturai said during a media briefing on Friday morning.
Chief Nursing Officer Felicia Laval said the health unit will work with PrideFest and Pozitive Pathways to operate the mobile clinic.
“Public health nurses will be available to provide health information and resources about monkeypox, as well as pre-exposure vaccination for those who meet the criteria and are eligible,” Laval said.
Nesaturai said the health unit will have about a hundred doses at the clinic and that the department has distributed monkeypox vaccines in the past.
The health unit also emphasized that although the greatest risk group continues to be men who have sex with men, anyone can become infected with the virus, which is transmitted through close contact. Nesaturai added that the PrideFest clinic will be the best way to raise as much awareness as possible about the virus, but the health unit is working to not stigmatize any part of the population.
So far, there has only been one confirmed case of monkeypox in Windsor-Essex.
Full information on monkeypox and vaccines can be found on the official website of the health unit.
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