The vaccines were handed over to the center for logistics in Shoham and will be distributed to medical facilities over the next few days. According the Health Minister of Israel Nitzan Horowitz, this delivery included 5,600 doses, with an additional five thousand vaccines to be delivered in the near future.
In the meantime, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the outbreak of monkeypox which was officially declared as a “global health emergency” last week and could last for months, as per Reuters.
As cases are currently growing by a factor of two each two weeks WHO Europe forecasts over 27,000 monkeypox cases across around 88 countries by the 2nd of August increasing from 17,800 cases spread across 70 countries as of the latest count.
Anne Rimoin, an epidemiology professor at the University of California, US Anne Rimoin, an epidemiology professor at the University of California, US, said to Reuters the news agency that healthcare institutions must “get in front of this.”
“It’s clear the window of opportunity for doing so is closing,” Rimoin was quoted as saying.
On Monday on Monday, Israel’s Health Ministry issued guidelines for vaccination against the virus monkeypox.
According to a government document The vaccine is to be administered to males older than 18 with a high chance of getting exposed to the illness.
There are 105 cases monkeypox that have been identified in Israel to date. The virus was seen in regions of Africa for many years, started to spread to non-endemic nations in the month of May. It can cause minor to moderate signs such as fatigue, fever as well as painful lesions on the skin which heal in a few weeks.