WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is expanding eligibility for Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos monkeypox vaccine by moving to a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) strategy, U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday.
“This new PrEP strategy means that more people who might be at present or future risk for monkeypox now qualify for the vaccine,” said deputy White House monkeypox response coordinator Demetre Daskalakis.
The strategy expands eligibility to gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men as well as transgender or gender diverse people who over the past six months have had multiple sexual partners, had sex in a place associated with higher monkeypox risk, or have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection, as well as their sexual partners, including commercial sex workers, Daskalakis said.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Mark Porter)