Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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On Tuesday, the national health authorities in Denmark and France recommended that people who have been directly exposed to a confirmed monkeypox case be vaccinated, and the U.K. health authority has made a similar recommendation.

Monkeypox and smallpox are closely related, and the U.S. says an existing smallpox vaccine is "at least 85% effective in preventing monkeypox."

Smallpox was eradicated in 1980, but stockpiles of vaccines have been maintained around the world to protect against a possible resurgence. There is also a newer vaccine against both smallpox and monkeypox, which was approved by the FDA in 2019.


In a report published Monday, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said the smallpox vaccine could be considered as a prophylaxis, or preventative measure, for those who have been buy phone number list exposed to monkeypox, but that individual risks and benefits should be assessed and "important information on the use of currently available smallpox vaccines is missing for groups at increased risk for severe disease."


The ECDC said antivirals could be another potential treatment option for severe cases. It did not recommend mass vaccination of entire populations to prevent the spread of monkeypox, which requires much closer contact for transmission than COVID-19, for example.

"The way smallpox was eradicated was not through mass vaccination of everybody, but what we call ring vaccination, where you identify who has monkeypox, or in the old days smallpox, who has been in contact with them, and you vaccinate all those people who have been in contact - not the general public," infectious disease specialist Dr. Celine Gounder told CBS News on Tuesday.