New York City and Washington, D.C., ran out of vaccines for monkeypox shortly after the cities implemented an online portal patients could use to schedule their shots.
Both cities made a limited amount of the two-dose Jynneos smallpox vaccine available but only opened appointments for those considered to have been at higher risk, including bisexual and gay men, transgender women, nonbinary people, sex workers, or workers at places with a high sex rate regardless of gender or orientation.
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“When additional doses become available, the vaccination scheduling portal will reopen. Stay tuned to D.C. Health’s social platforms for updates,” the district health department tweeted Monday.
New York City began its vaccinations efforts on Thursday, but all slots were filled a few hours later, according to the Hill. The district followed suit Monday, and also quickly had all appointments filled, but added that more information on future appointments should be available Wednesday. The most recent data on the virus revealed that the United States has had more than 200 cases of monkeypox, including 37 confirmed cases in New York state and 16 confirmed cases in Washington. More than 4,000 cases have been confirmed in 48 countries.
The monkeypox virus was initially discovered in monkeys in Africa, and it started spreading to humans in Africa in the 1970s, with the first case documented in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the World Health Organization. Symptoms are typically described as a less severe case of smallpox and include pimples or blisterlike rashes that appear on the face, inside the mouth, or on the hands, feet, chest, or genitals. Other symptoms include muscle aches, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and back pain, the organization said.
Two smallpox vaccines have been approved to treat monkeypox in the U.S.: Jynneos and ACAM2000. The White House said it expected 300,000 more vaccines would be made available over the next few weeks.
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Despite the rise in global cases of monkeypox, the WHO reported last week that it is not considered a global health emergency.
“We need all countries to remain vigilant and strengthen their capacities to prevent onward transmission of monkeypox,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “It is likely that many countries will have missed opportunities to identify cases, including cases in the community without any recent travel.”
