The city of Vienna is meeting the extremely strong demand for monkey pox vaccinations – more than 2,200 people have already applied for preventive immunization in the federal capital, and interest far outstrips the available vaccine. The vaccination offer will be expanded at the beginning of next week, the office of Alderman for Public Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ) announced over the weekend.
Vienna received 140 more vaccine doses for pre-exposure vaccinations from the federal government faster than originally thought. Since preventive vaccinations are administered intradermally, ie under the skin, 140 doses are sufficient for 700 vaccinations. However, two vaccinations are needed for full vaccination, which is why 350 people can still be vaccinated against monkey pox with the “supplement” as a precautionary measure.
Appointments from Monday
The dates for this will already be allocated next Monday, September 26. All people from the defined target groups who are pre-booked will automatically receive a reminder on the day, both by email and SMS. After that, vaccination appointments can be booked. It should be noted that only those who have updated their personal information can view the vaccination dates at www.impfservice.wien. The appointments for the first 360 pre-exposure MPX vaccinations that Vienna activated last Monday were fully booked within 25 minutes.
The newly allocated doses will then be vaccinated from Wednesday 28 September. Instead of the previous 18, 86 people a day can be vaccinated – the city of Vienna has adapted its infrastructure to the demand. However, it is impossible “that all interested parties get a vaccination appointment because of the enormous shortage of vaccines,” according to the hacker bureau. The city of Vienna would have the infrastructure and medical personnel trained to provide all registered persons with a preventive vaccination in the very short term. However, as there are only 4,340 MPX vaccine doses in all of Austria and the Ministry of Health has reserved two-thirds of them for post-exposure vaccinations, ie cases after proven contact with an infected person, it is not possible to make agreements about vaccination against monkeypox more broadly, explains a spokesperson for the Health Council.
People with “risk behavior” should be vaccinated
After all, a decree by Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) made it possible for the federal capital to call up an additional contingent of the requested vaccine. Because the decree states that every state is entitled to do so as soon as it can be shown that 40 percent of the original doses for pre-exposure vaccinations have been vaccinated. Vienna has long passed this milestone.
With regard to vaccination against monkey pox, the National Vaccination Committee currently advises not to vaccinate broad population groups, but mainly people with individual risk behaviour. These are mainly men with frequently changing sexual contacts of the same sex. Health professionals exposed to a very high risk of exposure should also vaccinate against monkeypox, for example when working in wards, outpatient clinics or operations dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of people infected with monkeypox. The same applies to employees in specialized laboratories who work with orthopox viruses, ie who deal with samples from people infected with monkey pox or the virus itself.
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.
