Vaccination was previously recommended post-exposure for contact cases. But the number of cases continued to increase, which now justifies this update.
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The High Authority for Health (HAS) recommends preventive vaccination for the groups most exposed to monkeypox, Friday July 8. It concerns “men who have sex with men and trans people who have multiple partners, people in a situation of prostitution and professionals working in places of sexual consumption”. This vaccination may also be considered “case by case” for professionals “helped to take care of sick people”announces the HAS in a press release.
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The HAS had already recommended, on May 20, post-exposure reactive vaccination for people whose contact with an infected person was considered to be at risk of exposure. But the number of cases has since increased, with 577 confirmed cases as of July 5, including 387 in Ile-de-France. Fdue to the spread of the virus, “to the kinetics of the epidemic and the difficulties of tracing the contacts of infected people”the HAS was therefore asked for an opinion by the Directorate General for Health.
LGBTQ+ associations were rightly asking the government to extend preventive vaccination to all men who have sex with other men, but also to sex workers. These populations represent the majority of infected people, although cases have also been detected in immunocompromised and some children. “We must be able to offer a pre-exposure vaccination, before coming into contact with the virus.press Franck Barbier, course and program manager at Aides.