Monkeypox vaccine: French people urged to get a dose

The High Authority for Health (HAS) recommends the administration of a booster dose for people vaccinated two years ago against mpox.

This Monday, September 2, 2024, the High Authority for Health (HAS) published an opinion in which it recommends the administration of a booster dose to people who were vaccinated against mpox (monkeypox) two years ago. A decision encouraged by “uncertainties” that “remain on the duration of protection induced by the vaccine”, specifies the independent public authority. A booster that must be carried out two years after the last dose received. Since the 2022 epidemic, no fewer than 126 cases of “clade 2”, a variant of mpox, have been identified in France according to data from Public Health France.

A booster dose for primary vaccinations in 2022

“Available studies show a significant decline in neutralizing antibodies within two years following a two-dose primary vaccination. They also suggest that a booster dose is associated with longer persistence of antibodies than after a single primary vaccination. The HAS therefore recommends a single booster dose for people first vaccinated in 2022 with a complete schedule,” we can read in the report.

In other words, people who have benefited from a complete primary vaccination, with one, two or three doses, are concerned. Those who have been infected with MPOX or who have already received a smallpox vaccine in childhood and then a single dose of the MVA-BN vaccine since 2022 are not affected.

A “preventative” vaccination for high-risk populations?

In addition, the HAS recommends implementing a complementary “preventive” vaccination strategy for people at high risk of exposure to the virus. The following are concerned: “men who have sex with men (MSM) and trans people reporting multiple sexual partners”, “people in prostitution”, “professionals in sexual encounter places, regardless of the status of these places”, and “partners or people sharing the same living space as the people mentioned above”.

150,000 French people vaccinated in the last 3 years

During the month of August, very quickly, the resigned Minister of Health, Frédéric Valletoux, declared that there was a “strong chance that sporadic cases” of the variant “will appear, and probably soon” in France, but the authorities immediately ruled out the possibility of a new lockdown or a situation comparable to that. that of covid-19. It would not be the first time that cases of monkeypox have been detected in France, since 2022 several thousand people have been treated after contracting the disease and a strain of the disease is still circulating in the country. The smallpox vaccine was already available at the time. This time, and although it is a new variant, the vaccine from the Danish group Bavarian Nordic – the only pharmaceutical laboratory to have a vaccine approved by the health authorities against mpox – should be just as effective.

Over the past three years, nearly 150,000 French people have already been vaccinated and the country's stocks should be more than sufficient in the event of a new wave of contamination. Especially since the Danish laboratory, which produced the vaccine, has announced that it will increase its production to 10 million doses by 2025.