The third generation IMVANDEX vaccine stands out as the safest and most effective product in the face of orthopoxvirus.
by
The epidemic continues to extend: more than 300 cases of variole of the monkey were confirmed on May 27 in nearly twenty countries outside the African continent, where the disease is endemic in ten countries. An extraordinary dispersion which has prompted many countries to brandish the vaccination weapon to try to stem the disease before it takes too large proportions. To stifle this outbreak, the High Authority for Health (has) recommends, in his opinion of May 24 , to vaccinate all individuals who have been in contact with a confirmed case, as well as all the people in contact with this first circle. This is the strategy of “ring vaccination”, which had notably proven itself against the last epidemics of smallpox.
There is no specific vaccine against the variole of the monkey, but studies have shown that vaccination against smallpox was effective at around 85 % against the variole of the monkey and that it made it possible to mitigate the symptoms, recall the organization World Health . “The reason is clear: all these viruses belong to the same small family called orthopoxvirus and there is a large cross immunity,” explains David Freedman, president of the American Society of Medicine and Tropical Hygiene. The vaccine against smallpox is also based on the vaccine virus, a cousin of this same family who has entered history by giving its name to vaccination.
very attenuated strain
All eyes therefore turn to stocks of antivariole vaccines constituted by many states to deal with a possible resurgence of the smallpox or a bioterrorist attack scenario. In France, the number of doses available is classified data. The latest statement made public there
These vaccines, known as first and second generations, are very effective and participated in the eradication of smallpox until 1984. But they have serious undesirable effects, such as encephalitis, encephalopathies, Vaccinatum eczema, heart attacks, etc. The injected virus replying in the body, they are also contraindicated in many cases, especially in pregnant women and immunocompromised people.
“These vaccines were well tolerated in the first year of life, but less well when the first injection was administered as adulthood,” said Brigitte Autran, a professor emeritus of immunology at the Faculty of Medicine Sorbonne-University. Their use was therefore naturally excluded after the eradication of the smallpox. “The risk linked to the vaccine itself is higher than that of the variole of the monkey which, in almost all cases, in healthy people, is a very benign infection accompanied by a ugly rash,” adds David Freedman.
You have 51.19% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.