London, Europe Brief News- Gay and bisexual men will start receiving Monkeypox vaccines in New York, Canada and UK.
Monkeypox cases have been disproportionately reported among men who have sex with men, prompting health authorities to expand vaccine access to people at high risk.
This could help to control the recent outbreak of the rare virus in the UK in which 793 people have been infected so far.
Monkeypox is not defined as a sexually-transmitted infection.
But it can be passed on by close contact during sex, and with bedding, towels and skin.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene became the latest agency to begin offering monkeypox vaccines to sexually active gay and bisexual men.
The move followed the example of the U.K.’s Health Security Agency and Canada’s Public Health Agency. The U.K. announced Tuesday that doctors could consider vaccines for men at higher risk of exposure. According to the guidance, that could be “someone who, for example, has multiple partners, participates in group sex or attends ‘sex on premises’ venues.”
In Canada, vaccination clinics have offered monkeypox shots to gay, bisexual and other men who had sex with men over the last couple of weeks in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.
The trend marks an expansion of monkeypox vaccination efforts; previously, the vaccines were administered only to people with known exposure to the virus.
