Brazil’s health regulator (Anvisa) has approved the importation of a vaccine against monkeypox, as more than 4,000 people have been infected, ranking the country third in the world.
As a result of this Anvisa decision, the Ministry of Health can purchase the Imvanex vaccine, produced by the Danish laboratory Bavarian Nordic, through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
In its authorization, Anvisa approved the purchase of 50,000 doses of the drug, which has not been tested in Brazil but has been tested by health authorities in the United States and Europe, Valor Economico newspaper reported today.
Initially, the ministry will distribute the vaccines to about 25,000 health professionals who work with infected patients or people with disease symptoms.
Anvisa also gave the green light for the purchase of the antiviral Tecovirimat.
At the same time, the government reported yesterday that the number of infected people rose to 4,414 on Thursday, up from 592 on July 22.
In light of this increase in cases, state governments have requested the declaration of a public health “emergency,” a proposal that the national government has not yet accepted.
São Paulo is the most affected state with 2,640 infected, Rio de Janeiro reported 508, Minas Gerais has 221 infected, and one man has died from the disease.
WHO
The World Health Organization’s declaration of monkeypox as a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (PHEIC) was made by one man, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has no medical training, over the objection of the majority of his own expert committee of medical and scientific advisers.
Nine of the committee members thought a PHEIC should not be declared, and six supported a declaration.