Xinhua News Agency
MONTEVIDEO — Uruguay will begin a vaccination campaign against monkeypox aimed “specifically” at those who have been exposed to the virus, Minister of Public Health Daniel Salinas said Monday, Aug. 1.
The country will request between 6,000 and 7,000 vaccine doses of the third-generation inactivated virus, which are expected to arrive by the end of October or early November, he said.
“It will be administered to specific laboratory personnel pre-exposure and in the first four days post-exposure, when there has been very close contact, particularly with lesions,” Salinas said.
In contrast to COVID-19 transmission, monkeypox requires “very close contact,” the minister said, assuring the population that the disease “is not like the coronavirus” and has lower fatality levels.
The South American country confirmed its first monkeypox case on Friday in the capital Montevideo in a patient, who was stable and in isolation, with a history of recent travel abroad. – gb
