Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference on Friday that demand for the vaccine is out of stock.
She said that they don't have all the vaccine they want.
It's not known when the supply crunch will end. More than 131,000 doses were made available by the federal government. Diagnostic testing has been slow and limited in its scope.
More than 1,500 cases have been identified in the United States, mostly in men who have sex with men, and the figure is likely to rise in the coming weeks. More than 11,000 cases have been identified around the world.
Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist and monkeypox expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that the window of opportunity to control it is quickly closing. There are probably more cases we don't know about.
The Department of Health and Human Services ordered 2.5 million more doses of the vaccine on Friday, but they won't be arriving until next year.
The 2.5 million doses are expected to arrive late this year.
An epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health said it was like saying we have a tanker of water coming next week.
The U.S. response to the outbreak has been criticized by public health experts for being slow and inefficient.
Initially, monkeypox testing was very limited, and each diagnosis had to be confirmed by the C.D.C., creating delays that could have allowed the virus to spread undetected.
With limited supplies of vaccine and still some problems with testing, it will be hard to get this under control.
The C.D.C. has collaborated with five commercial testing companies to increase the nation's testing capacity from 6,000 to 70,000 samples a week.
Monkeypox is what it is. In parts of Central and West Africa, there is a disease called monkeypox. It is not as bad as smallpox. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was discovered in the 50's.
The symptoms are what they are. People who have been bitten by the Monkeypox will have a rash that starts with red marks and grows into a large lump of flesh. Symptoms can take as long as three weeks after exposure to show and can last as long as four weeks. Vaccines and other treatments can be used to stop an outbreak.
What is it that makes it infectious? Some experts think that the virus could occasionally be airborne. It has spread in unusual ways this year and among populations that have not been at risk in the past.
What is happening in the US? The rapid spread of monkeypox across the country and the government's slow response raises questions about the nation's ability to deal with a Pandemic threat. Vaccines will be in short supply for a long time due to the unavailability of tests. The official case counts are likely to be underestimated.
Dr. Walensky said that they have the capacity for testing that they need.
Health officials should be more active in monitoring the disease.
Testing should be offered in venues that serve men who have sex with men, as well as in congregate settings, such as homeless shelters, where the virus could be spread, according to Dr.
It's difficult to expand testing to people who don't have symptoms because the monkeypox test involves touching one of the diseases. She said that you need to have a lesion in order to take the test.
There are new tests that can detect the virus in people who don't show symptoms.
Expansion of testing is important given the limited vaccine supply and the fact that the virus is unlikely to remain in the networks and communities.
The quicker you can identify cases, the better you are at isolating them.
The only vaccine approved by the F.D.A for monkeypox is Jynneos. The global supply of it has been extremely limited.
Dawn O'Connell, the assistant secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, said on Friday that the United States has received just 372,000 of the seven million doses it has purchased. She said that 156,000 doses have been distributed nationwide.
State health officials can request an alternative vaccine known as ACAM2000, which was developed to prevent smallpox and should also protect against monkeypox, according to experts. The federal government has only given it to a few states in relatively modest quantities.
The FDA is considering approving an additional 780,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic's manufacturing facility inDenmark.
Peter Marks, a top vaccine regulator at the F.D.A., said that they were working diligently to finish up their evaluation of the required information.
He said that the United States isn't considering a one-dose strategy. He said that they were confident that they would have a supply of vaccine in time to give the second dose.
The priority for the allocation of new vaccine doses will be given to states and territories that are seeing high or increasing cases of monkeypox.
Ms. O'Connell said that they were working around the clock to increase supply.
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