US to release monkeypox vaccine from national stockpile for high-risk people group

The US has responded to a request to release monkeypox vaccine from the Strategic National Stockpile as a global outbreak of cases is under investigation, CNN reports.

The country has one confirmed case of monkeypox and four suspected cases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday.

"I can report that there has been a request for release of the Jynneos vaccine from the National Stockpile for some of the high-risk contacts of some of the early patients, so that is actively happening right now," Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology within the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said Monday.

McQuiston said the US had a good supply of the vaccine as it prepared for the possibility of using doses to treat smallpox.

In the United States, the Jynneos two-dose vaccine is licensed for the prevention of smallpox and specifically for the prevention of monkeypox.

"Right now, we have over 1,000 doses of that available, and we expect that level to ramp up very quickly in the coming weeks as the company provides more doses to us," McQuiston said.

There is another licensed smallpox vaccine in the US, ACAM2000, that can be used to prevent monkeypox, she said, and there are more than 100 million doses in the country.

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