By: Charlotte Dong

Experts are devising a new monkeypox vaccine strategy by changing how the vaccine will be injected. Instead of the standard injection, they plan on administering it through an intradermal shot, which involves injecting the vaccine through skin layers.

Recently, a new disease called monkeypox has emerged. Even though it hasn’t been a massive threat to human life, cases are increasing. There are currently 7,510 cases in the United States.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, monkeypox is mainly transmitted through close physical contact, including during sex. So far, it has primarily spread through communities of gay men, but people of all sexualities and genders are vulnerable to getting it. On Friday, five cases were announced in which some children and a staff member working in a daycare tested positive for monkeypox.

Officials are planning on creating multiple doses of vaccines for monkeypox. However, the government is experiencing a shortage due to the slow order of bulk vaccine stocks to be processed into vials.

Currently, they only have 1.1 million shots covering 555,000 people, but their goal is to provide 1.6-1.7 million people with vaccinations.

The new proposal — an intradermal shot — is a very meticulous process. To correctly insert an intradermal shot, the injector must not go too deep, or the patient won’t get the whole vaccine amount. If it’s not deep enough, the vaccine could leak out.

“If you’re giving a lower dose and you don’t inject it properly into the skin – you might inject it into the wrong place – you may not be giving a protective vaccine…If you ask this to be done nationwide in millions of doses, it’s a lot easier for there to be mistakes made in the administration of the vaccine,” said Dr. Phil Krause, a retired FDA vaccine regulator.

Experts are hesitant to go through with this idea because it is a meticulous process. Vaccinators must also undergo training before performing on patients to avoid wasting doses.

Dr. John Beigel, an associate director of clinical research at the National Institutes of Health, suggests converting to the intradermal vaccination because it enables multiple doses, which promotes a more robust immune response than just injecting one shot.

Officials are still determining if they should release the intradermal vaccination, but they will be sure to release the safest and most practical way to distribute the vaccine.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/06/us/politics/monkeypox-vaccination-strategy.html