OUR European Medicines Agency (EMA) today approved a new method for administering a vaccine against it. monkeypoxThis will allow more people to be vaccinated and thus prevent a potential vaccine shortage.

European countries can now inject the Imvanex vaccine directly under the top layer of the skin (percutaneous) rather than deeper (subcutaneous) as is done today, and thus only deliver a fifth of a dose, he said in an EMA announcement.

This method, which uses a weaker dose of the vaccine, provides the same immunity with an equivalent level of antibodies as the other method, but the risk of skin irritation is higher, the Amsterdam agency warned.

“National authorities may decide, as an interim measure, to use Imvanex by transdermal injection at a lower dose to protect people at risk during the current monkeypox outbreak while vaccine supplies remain limited,” he said at the EMA.

European Union Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakidou stressed that this approval is a decision “extremely important as it allows five times more people to be vaccinated with the vaccine stock we have.”

“This provides better access to vaccination for all at-risk people and healthcare workers,” the statement said.

Source: APE/MEB