The Central Government-constituted task force on Monkeypox will take a call on vaccinating close contacts of those who have tested positive for the virus and as of now there are no specific plans to vaccinate any segment of the population, said a senior Health Ministry official on Tuesday.
This follows Union Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya’s statement in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday where he said that India has 8 positive (5 in Kerala and 3 in Delhi) confirmed cases of the virus and that the country has initiated strict surveillance and contact tracking.
“The disease is not new and nothing to panic about,” added the Minister
Stating that the Monkeypox virus strain has been isolated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which has also floated an expression of interest for the development of vaccine and diagnostics kits, the Minister said that the World Health Organization is not currently recommending mass vaccination for Monkeypox.
Dr. Pragya D. Yadav from maximum containment laboratory, ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune, said that India currently doesn’t have a smallpox vaccine.
Elaborating on the availability of vaccines for Monkeypox, Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director World Health Organization, South-East Asia Region said that it will take some time to fully assess what is available and how these vaccines can be used to greatest effect.
“There is a vaccine for monkeypox recently approved by some countries for which supplies are limited. Some countries may hold smallpox vaccine products which could be considered for use according to national guidance,” said Dr. Singh.
She added that vaccine products may be available in limited quantities through national authorities, depending on the country.
Many years of research have led to the development of new and safer (second- and third-generation) vaccines for smallpox, some of which may be useful for monkeypox and one of which has been approved for prevention of monkeypox.
This vaccine is based on a strain of vaccinia virus (known generically as modified vaccinia Ankara Bavarian Nordic strain, or MVA-BN). This vaccine has been approved for the prevention of monkeypox in Canada and the United States of America, explained Dr. Singh.
Also, a senior paediatrician, who works with India’s immunisation policy but declined to be identified, said that India didn’t have a smallpox vaccine.
“In the early 80s, a decision was taken to stop vaccinating children with the smallpox vaccine because the disease had been eradicated and the allergic reactions it provoked were painful,” the person told The Hindu.
“The two vaccines now available are for smallpox but we don’t know if this will be effective for monkeypox. However, it shouldn’t be a challenge for India to import these vaccines if necessary at short notice.”
In 2019, the United States Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) approved the JYNNEOS vaccine for the prevention of smallpox, monkeypox and other diseases caused by orthopoxviruses, including vaccinia virus, in adults 18 years of age and older and categorised as having a “high risk of infection”.
These include contacts of those who have been confirmed to have contracted a monkeypox infection, sexual partners (with contact within previous two weeks) of those confirmed with an infection and those whose immune systems are compromised.
As of July 29, doses were available in Brazil, Canada (Toronto, Montreal,) Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Europe, France, Germany (Berlin), Israel, Mexico, Nigeria, Portugal (Lisbon), Scotland, Spain (Madrid) and the U.K. (London) with the company claiming to have delivered around 300,000 doses.
Meanwhile, the Minister said that India is taking a step-by-step approach and is implementing the best of the learnings that were gained due to coronavirus.
“When cases started appearing in the world, India had already started preparations. Before the first case in Kerala, we had issued guidelines to all the states. We have written to the governments at the international level that the screening report of the travellers should also be sent to us,” the Minister told Rajya Sabha.
