The Ministry of Health expects the first batch with 20,000 doses of the immunizer against monkeypox to arrive at the end of August. The second batch, with 30 thousand doses, should arrive in early September. The vaccines were ordered from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
In an interview with CNN , the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, stated that there is a prospect of producing the vaccine in Brazil. “We have two large laboratories like Fiocruz and Butantan that, if they have the cell bank, will be able to produce the vaccine, the technology is old, what we need is the cell bank,” said the minister.
Queiroga also said that he does not see the possibility of monkeypox becoming a pandemic. “There is no such risk. Monkeypox does not have this possibility, from what we already know from the history of the disease. The DNA virus mutates less, it is not like the RNA virus. Can you mutate? It can, but the predictability of these pathogens is lower. From what I heard from the experts, there is no condition for it to become a pandemic like Covid-19.”
According to the minister, the government intends to expand, until the end of the first week of August, the laboratories that diagnose monkeypox in Brazil. Currently, only four in Brazil make this diagnosis, the Adolfo Lutz Institute, the Oswaldo Cruz Institute and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Ezequiel Dias Foundation. The objective of the Ministry of Health is to expand to all central laboratories in the country – 27, one in each unit of the federation.
According to the schedule, health professionals who are treating patients with monkeypox should be the first group to receive the immunizer. “As soon as we have a vaccine in Brazil, we will apply it to health professionals, and not everyone, just those who are caring for patients with the disease”
This Monday (1st), the ministry informed that Brazil will receive the antiviral tecovirimat to fight monkeypox. In the first batch, the Brazilian government should receive only 50 antivirals to treat only critically ill patients. “The drug does not have solid effective evidence, it is used off-label, but it is being used in other countries in cases considered very serious”, said the minister.
Source: CNN Brasil
