According to Sweden’s vaccine coordinator, the European Union has chosen to purchase a vaccine and antiviral in bulk to combat an outbreak of monkeypox, a virus that is endemic in Africa but is uncommon elsewhere.
“We have chosen to buy both a vaccination and an antiviral therapy after multiple discussions,” Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter reported coordinator Richard Bergstrom as saying.
According to the report, the EU would purchase Imvanex and Tecovirimat from Siga Technologies in the United States.
According to Bergstrom, the EU has not yet signed a deal with either firm.
“But it will be over shortly. We should have a contract ready in about a week and possibly some restricted deliveries in June “According to the newspaper, he said.
Imvanex is a vaccination against smallpox, which is closely related to monkey pox.
It is approved in the United States for the prevention of both smallpox and monkeypox. The European Union has approved it for smallpox, but doctors can prescribe it for monkeypox off-label.
Since early May, global health officials have tracked more than 200 suspected and confirmed instances of the typically mild viral infection in 19 nations. Although no deaths have been reported so far, the monkeypox variant implicated in the present outbreak has a case fatality rate of roughly 1%.
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