They will meet at the Hospital Clínic, at the Checkpoint BCN and at the STI Unit of Drassanes-Vall d’Hebron
BARCELONA, 20 (EUROPA PRESS)
The Secretary of Public Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Carmen Cabezas, explained that they will start vaccination against monkeypox on Thursday for people in priority groups and will start contacting them to give them an appointment this Wednesday.
During a press conference, Cabezas clarified that the vaccination prior to exposure to the disease will be done “essentially” on men who have sex with men and who are in PrEP programs and in the prevention programs for people who already have HIV.
These people must also be under the age of 45, not have received the vaccine before, not have suffered from the disease, not have been in close contact with a case of monkeypox in the last ten days, not present symptoms consistent with the disease and have no general contraindications to any vaccine.
Catalonia has 1,643 vaccines of the 5,300 that have already arrived in Spain and the doses will be administered at three points: Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, BCN Checkpoint and the Drassanes-Vall unit of Hebron STD.
People who have been exposed to the virus and who may have complications such as minors, pregnant women and people on treatment with immunosuppressants, as well as healthcare professionals who have treated a case without adequate protection, will also be vaccinated.
Cabezas stressed the importance of administering the vaccine four days after exposure and clarified that those people who need the post-exposure vaccine will be located through epidemiological surveillance.
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SITUATION
Catalonia has recorded 1,025 confirmed cases of monkeypox out of some 1,407 suspected or probable cases, most of them men between the ages of 20 and 60 who started showing symptoms between May 5 and July 16.
Cabezas confirmed that there is community transmission in Catalonia and defended that vaccines will help but regretted that coverage could be granted to all those at risk because the availability of doses is limited.
The secretary clarified that Catalonia has “a third” of the doses available in Spain as they have decided the distribution based on the volume of the population, the number of positive cases of monkeypox and the number of people who receive PrEP or that they have HIV.
INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL
BCN Checkpoint-BCN PrEP-Point Medical Director Pep Coll stressed the importance of detecting positive cases as early as possible and that they self-isolate and follow national rules such as not sharing clothes or towels and wearing a mask, among others .. others.
With regard to epidemiological surveillance, he highlighted the identification and follow-up of contacts so that they are under observation and, in the event that this is one of the priority groups of the strategy, they receive the post-exposure vaccine.
As protective measures, he highlighted sexual abstinence or reducing the number of sexual partners as well as the use of a condom, although he specified that this has “very limited” effectiveness.
He described other measures such as personal protective equipment for health professionals in contact with patients and giving “good information” to the population, especially among those most susceptible to infection, but avoiding social stigma.