UK needs urgent vaccine drive to curb monkeypox, campaigners say

The health authorities are underestimating the scale of the response required to stop monkeypox becoming endemic in the UK.

The UK Health Security Agency was urged to give more money to the system to pay more healthcare workers to administer vaccines. The latest official figures show that at least 2,208 people in the UK have been affected by the virus.

The risk of severe monkeypox is higher in children, pregnant women and people who are immune to it.

According to the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, at least 125,000 people will need vaccines, including gay men living with HIV. There is a need for a second dose of the vaccine. The National Health Service said last week that it had procured 100,000 more doses. Gay and bisexual men are being prioritised over men who have sex with men who exhibit high-risk behavior. People at risk need more walk in clinics.

Richard Angell is the campaigns director at the Terrence Higgins Trust. It can get into the system like a sexually transmitted disease.

Labour's shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, wrote to the health secretary on Saturday, saying that he was concerned that the response so far had lacked coordination.

The vaccination programme diverts resources away from sexual health services, which include anti-HIV therapies and long-term contraceptives.

An 80% reduction in new HIV infections in England will be achieved by the department. Progress towards achieving this would be a scandal if it were to be jeopardized.

The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted.

The director-general of the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency over the weekend due to the monkeypox outbreak.

The international health regulations emergency committee did not agree on whether to declare the outbreak a public health emergency, but they did agree that it was justified because of the rapid spread of the virus around the world.

The risk of monkeypox was moderate globally and high in Europe, and there was a clear risk of further international spread.

The UKHSA said last week that it continues to happen. The data shows that the growth of the outbreak may have slowed. We continue to identify new infections but at a more stable rate.

Thousands more people will be invited very shortly, with the number of clinics expanded too, according to Steve Russell, the director of vaccinations for the National Health Service.