PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Biden administration has shipped out an allotment of monkeypox vaccines to states in an effort to stop a growing outbreak that has so far predominantly affected gay men.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it sent 482 doses to Pennsylvania and 2,813 doses to New Jersey.
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The CDC has confirmed 1,053 cases of monkeypox in the United States. Pennsylvania has 32 cases and New Jersey has 20.
While the CDC expanded eligibility in late June to include gay and bisexual men with multiple partners in areas where monkeypox is spreading, Philadelphia is limiting doses to contacts of known cases because of the limited supply. Cities like New York and Chicago have allowed the larger eligible group to sign up for appointments.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health said this initial shipment of vaccine from the federal government amounted to 450 doses, and half of those went to Philadelphia, which is its own jurisdiction.
The rest of the doses are going to 12 other sites across the state that are stocking vaccine.
State spokesman Mark O'Neill says the department can quickly facilitate vaccines from one of those sites to anywhere in the commonwealth.
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Meanwhile, Philadelphia health officials confirmed that 225 doses of the vaccine have arrived, and they will be administered to close contacts of people with probable or confirmed cases of monkeypox.
James Garrow with the Department of Public Health says the federal distribution plan involved setting the country up into a number of tiers, so places with the highest number of monkeypox cases get their shipments first, and other cities and states getting them later.
Garrow says there are enough doses in Philadelphia that anyone who needs one can get one, which will be determined case by case.
He says the best way to avoid transmission is to avoid close contact with someone who has, or thinks they have, monkeypox. And he recommends a visit to the doctor for anyone who may have been exposed.
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