Colorado public health officials administer close to 10K monkeypox vaccine doses
Aug 05, 2022 | 6:40 pm ET
Description
This digitally-colorized electron microscopic image depicted monkeypox virus particles, obtained from a clinical sample associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. It was a thin section image from of a human skin sample. On the left were mature, oval-shaped virus particles, and on the right were the crescents, and spherical particles of immature virions. (CDC/Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regnery, Hannah Bullock)
Colorado is expanding its monkeypox vaccine distribution as federal allocation increases and the disease becomes a public health emergency.
As of Aug. 3, the state has received 9,665 monkeypox vaccine doses. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment says it has administered, scheduled to administer, redistributed or planned to redistribute all of those doses.
On Aug. 1, CDPHE requested an additional 5,080 doses from the federal government.
The state plans to administer 480 doses, representing a fully-booked schedule, through Aug. 13.
“We’re ready for the additional vaccines and are standing up even more vaccine clinics across the state with the help of our local partners,” Scott Bookman, the division director of Disease Control and Public Health Response within CDPHE, said in a statement. “Even though this is a very different disease than COVID-19 and it spreads differently, we have leveraged all of the lessons we learned from the pandemic to stand up an efficient response.”
So far, there have been 80 confirmed human cases of monkeypox in the state since May.
The state currently has 30 providers who can administer the vaccine and plans to expand that network. Coloradans can confirm their eligibility and express interest for a vaccine through an online form. CDPHE will then reach out to eligible recipients to schedule an appointment.
The 2022 outbreak has been driven mainly through sexual contact. CDPHE advises that people who are “gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men who have had sex with multiple people and/or with people they did not previously know in the last 14 days” can get the vaccine. Getting vaccinated after an exposure can risk the chance of infection.
Denver, CO
