White House To Move On Plan To Split Monkeypox Vaccine Doses
In order to increase the limited US supply, the FDA is backing a plan to allow smaller doses of the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine to be delivered by intradermal injection.
The New York Times: US Moves To Stretch Out Monkeypox Vaccine Supply
The Biden administration has decided to stretch out its limited supply of monkeypox vaccine by allowing a different method of injection that uses one-fifth as much per shot, according to people familiar with the discussions. In order for the Food and Drug Administration to authorize so-called intradermal injection, which would involve injecting one-fifth of the current dose into the skin instead of a full dose into underlying fat, the Department of Health and Human Services will need to issue a new emergency declaration allowing regulators to invoke the FDA’s emergency use powers. That statement is expected as early as Tuesday afternoon. (LaFraniere and Weiland, 8/8)
The Washington Post: Limited Monkeypox Vaccine Supply Would Be Stretched Under FDA Plan
“It really means, basically, sticking the needle within the skin and creating a little pocket there into which the vaccine goes,” Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said, comparing it to tests for tuberculosis and other injections performed by health-care workers . “This is really nothing highly unusual.” (Diamond, 8/8)
In other monkeypox news —
CIDRAP: Monkeypox Cases Reach 7,500 In US; 99% Of Cases In Males
New data published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows 99% of monkeypox cases in the United States are in males, and 94% of cases report recent male-to-male sexual or intimate contact. (Soucheray, 8/8)
Becker’s Hospital Review: Not Always Mild: What Physicians Are Seeing Among Monkeypox Patients
Most patients in New York City, an epicenter of the outbreak, are recovering at home with outpatient supportive care, said Jason Zucker, MD, an infectious diseases specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, during an Aug . 5 calls with reporters. They’re experiencing some symptoms that present with many other viral illnesses, such as fever, chills and swollen lymph nodes, in addition to a rash that develops a few days after the other symptoms. He said there’s been a “small number” of patients whose symptoms were severe enough to require hospitalization. (Carbajal, 8/8)
San Francisco Chronicle: SF All But Gives Up On Contact Tracing For Monkeypox
With 472 cases — 36% of the state’s 1,310 cases — city public health officials believe San Francisco has the nation’s highest per-capita rate. At first, the practice of tracing people exposed to a fast-spreading disease, then isolating or treating them, seemed like a good idea. Health officials linked on it in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases climbed. (Asimov, 8/8)
Detroit Free Press: Sparrow Health System Testing For Monkeypox; Offers Fast Result
Sparrow Health System is testing for the monkeypox virus through its own in-house system that started Thursday, the same day US health officials declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency. Two patients had been tested by noon Friday, with the main lab in Lansing having the capability of testing up to 200 patients per day, said Dr. Paul Entler, the health system’s chief clinical officer. (Lobby, 8/8)
KHN: Covid Sewage Surveillance Labs Join The Hunt For Monkeypox
The same wastewater surveillance techniques that have emerged as a critical tool in early detection of covid-19 outbreaks are being adapted for use in monitoring the starting spread of monkeypox across the San Francisco Bay Area and some other US communities. Before the covid pandemic, wastewater sludge was thought to hold promise as an early indicator of community health threats, in part because people can excrete genetic evidence of infectious diseases in their feces, often before they develop symptoms of illness. Israel has for decades monitored wastewater for polio. But before covid, such risk monitoring in the US was limited largely to academic pursuits. (Kreidler, 8/9)
Poynter: Image Falsely Claims Monkeypox Is ‘Airborne’
The Biden administration declared monkeypox a public health emergency on Aug. 4, but leading national and international health organizations haven’t made sweeping changes to the way they classify the virus and illness, despite alarming claims made by an image circulating online. An image shared in a Facebook post on Aug. 3 suggests that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization made major changes to their available monkeypox guidance and information. (Czopek, 8/8)
Also —
The New York Times: There’s Just One Drug to Treat Monkeypox. Good Luck Getting It.
The only drug available to treat monkeypox is so difficult to access that just a fraction of the nearly 7,000 patients in the United States have been given it. Health officials have designated tecovirimat, also called Tpoxx, an “investigational drug,” which they say means it cannot be released from the strategic national stockpile without a series of convoluted bureaucratic steps. But most doctors do not have the time or resources to fill out the required 27-page application or to provide the detailed patient information. (Mandavilli, 8/6)
