Catalonia will pressure the Government to request more monkeypox vaccines from Europe

A day after the WHO declared an international health emergency over the monkeypox outbreak, the ‘conseller’ de Salut, Josep Maria Argimonannounced this Sunday that he will put pressure on the Government to ask the European Union for more vaccines against the contagious disease. Catalonia, which is one of the autonomous communities with more cases of the virus, has 1,643 vaccines of the 5,300 that have already arrived in Spain. “It is possible that it is a disease that will stay,” said the expert in an interview with Europa Press.

Argimon recognizes that Europe “does not have it easy” to get more doses, but explained that Catalonia has already moved the request for more vaccines in the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System and in the Public Health Commission.

Vaccination from Thursday

The ‘conseller’ has remarked that monkeypox, at the moment, is a “self-limited pathology that ends in two to four weeks”. In addition to asking to avoid close contacts if infected, Catalonia started on Thursday the vaccination prior to exposure of the virus to the priority groupsmen who have sex with men and who are in treatment programs with Pre-Exposure Proxilaxis (PrEP), one of the criteria for vaccination, or in prevention programs for people who have HIV.

The Department of Health will also vaccinate people who have been exposed to the virus and may have complications such as. minors, pregnant womens and people undergoing treatment with immunosuppressantsas well as to healthcare professionals who has cared for a case without adequate protection.

Status of covid

On the epidemiological situation of the coronavirus pandemicThe ‘conseller’ has celebrated that both the indicators and the care pressure are decreasing and the downward trend is consolidating. He believes that in autumn and early winter there will be an “upturn”, which is expected to be similar to that of the seventh wave of the pandemic, although he has clarified that with the arrival of variants the forecasts may change.

We are certainly where we wanted to be a year and a half ago,” Argimon claimed about the level of immunity of citizens acquired through vaccines and through infection.