As of Friday, 2,204 people in Vienna have been registered for a monkey pox vaccination. The interest in pre-exposure, ie preventive immunization, is therefore significantly greater than the amount of vaccine available. So far, 275 people in Vienna have been vaccinated against monkeypox (monkeypox, MPX). Most of these were vaccinations after confirmed contact with an infected person: 200 people were immunized after exposure.
In addition, 75 people in the Austrian capital were able to fulfill their wish for preventive vaccination. That there weren’t more is due to the limited vaccine and the Department of Health’s requirement that only one-third of the available or assigned doses can be used for pre-exposure vaccination. The rest is, as it were, reserved for vaccinations after direct physical contact.
“Too little vaccine in the country”
“We were able to vaccinate everyone scheduled for the monkeypox vaccination in a very short time because as a city we had an adequate infrastructure and the staff capacities that were trained for it. But it simply fails because there is not enough vaccine in the country and only a third of this amount can be used for preventive vaccinations,” the office of Vienna City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ) said on the APA request on Friday.
There are 4,340 MPX vaccine doses in Austria, of which 2,340 were distributed among the individual federal states in a key corresponding to the number of inhabitants. Vienna received 21.5% of this. 2000 cans are still “in reserve” with the federal government. However, a recent decree by Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) makes it possible to allocate additional quantities in case of higher demand in one state and lower demand in other states. Once a state has demonstrably vaccinated 40 percent of its quota for pre-exposure vaccinations, further amounts can be requested.
Date will be determined next week
Vienna then knocked on the federal government’s door and asked for supplies from the “reserve quota”. Meanwhile, the release of the corresponding amount had arrived, the hacker bureau said on Friday: “That means that Vienna will receive 140 additional monkeypox vaccine doses for preventive vaccinations. After the pre-exposure immunization can be administered intradermally, i.e. under the skin, these can be 140 vaccine doses will be used for 700 vaccinations Another 350 appointments for prophylactic vaccination in Vienna When these dates will be activated and when the vaccination will take place will be determined in the coming week.
According to the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), 304 cases of monkey pox were reported in Austria on Friday. Of these, 99 have been affected – the current outbreak almost exclusively affects men with same-sex intimate contacts – as recovered. 220 of the confirmed cases so far were registered in the federal capital.
There are currently 36 active cases in Vienna, involving men between the ages of 25 and 55. Two sick people must be treated in hospital, “not because it would be medically necessary, but as a precaution,” the hacking agency told the APA.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
