The government will extend vaccination once morest monkeypox to “most exposed groups”, in particular homosexuals, multi-partner trans people, people in prostitution, following an opinion from the High Authority for Health (HAS) to this effect .
The HAS recommended on Friday to extend vaccination to these groups.
“This opinion will be followed”, announced shortly following Jérôme Salomon, Director General of Health, during a press briefing.
New categories eligible for preventive vaccination “will be able to start making appointments as early as next week if they wish”, he added.
“Faced with the spread of the Monkeypox virus, the kinetics of the epidemic and the difficulties of tracing the contacts of infected people”, the HAS recommended on Friday to broaden the vaccination to be able to administer it preventively to the most exposed ” because of their sexual practices or their profession,” according to a press release.
This recommendation concerns “men who have sex with men and trans people reporting multiple sexual partners, people in a situation of prostitution, professionals in places of sexual consumption, whatever the status of these places”, specified the HAS.
In France, according to the latest figures, as of July 7, 721 cases have been confirmed, including 473 in Ile-de-France.
To date, in France, 98% of cases for which sexual orientation is given have occurred in men who have sex with men (MSM). Of the cases for which information is available, 75% report having had at least two sexual partners in the three weeks before the onset of symptoms.
At this stage, the HAS does not recommend the preventive vaccination of health professionals caring for the sick, considering that the usual hygiene measures and the wearing of personal protective equipment make “the risk of contamination very low in practice” .
This vaccination can however be considered “on a case-by-case basis, depending on exposure, the existence of individual risk factors or at their request”, she added.
Until then, the High Authority for Health recommended vaccinating adults, including health professionals, who had risky contact with a patient.
It had been seized at the end of last week by the Ministry of Health to determine to which populations to extend vaccination to limit the risk of contamination for people at risk of exposure to the virus.
LGBTQI + associations, certain health professionals, and, more recently, left-wing parties, had asked the ministry regarding an extension to men who have sex with other men.
“As of next week, around ten sites in Ile-de-France” will offer vaccination to the wider public, said Friday Cécile Somaribba, director of monitoring and health security at the Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency. of France.
Marketed under the name Imvanex in Europe, the vaccine used is a 3rd generation vaccine (non-replicating live vaccine, i.e. one that does not replicate in the human body), authorized in Europe since 2013 and indicated once morest smallpox in adults.
“We are now able to meet the needs of the centers in the coming weeks”, assured Jérôme Salomon, not mentioning “difficulties in accessing this vaccine”.
