CDC: 2 doses of mpox vaccine were 86% effective against infection
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CDC officials said the results showed the importance of at-risk populations getting vaccinated or receiving a second dose.
The vaccination campaign against mpox (formerly called monkeypox) after an outbreak swept the United States last year was highly effective in preventing infection, new federal data show.
A new study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that one dose of the JYNNEOS vaccine was 75% effective and two doses of the vaccine were 86% effective.
The study comes as the CDC and the Chicago Department of Public Health reported a recent outbreak of mpox.
Among immunocompromised patients, one dose of the vaccine was 51% effective and two doses were 70.2% effective.
CDC officials said the results showed the importance of at-risk populations getting vaccinated or getting a second dose among those who were only partially vaccinated before the summer.
As of the end of March, nearly 31,000 mpox cases and 42 deaths have been reported since the outbreak occurred last year, according to the report.
The outbreak focused primarily on men who have sex with men, a group that includes people who identify as gay, bisexual, transgender, and nonbinary.
Anyone can be at risk
Health officials began advising anyone with known exposure to mpox or who might be at risk of exposure to get vaccinated with the JYNNEOS vaccine, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019.
To increase the number of doses of JYNNEOS available, the FDA approved a proven strategy in August to inject the vaccine intradermally, just under the first layer of the skin, rather than subcutaneously or under all layers of the skin. fur.
This allows one vial of vaccine to be administered in five separate doses instead of a single dose. Between August 2022 and March 2023, a total of 309 patients who were vaccinated were compared with 608 patients who were not.
Not only was the vaccine shown to be effective, but there was also little difference in the effectiveness of the vaccine when it came to the method by which the injection was given, either subcutaneously or intradermally.
They insist that vaccination is an important tool to prevent mpox and also to consider additional precautions to reduce exposure, particularly among immunosuppressed people.