Government sets up expert group on monkeypox response

A new advisory group on monkeypox has been established by Government to advise how best to respond to the current outbreak of the disease.

Chaired by interim chief medical officer Prof Breda Smyth, the group includes experts from the public health, infectious disease and immunology fields, along with Padraig Burke of the Gay Health Network.

Eleven new cases of monkeypox were confirmed last week, bringing the total to 113, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.

All cases are male, with a median age of 36 years. No cases have so far been reported among young people aged 18 and under.

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All 84 cases where sexual orientation is known involved people who are gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM).

Eleven cases have been hospitalised; five were admitted for clinical care related to monkeypox infection, two were admitted for isolation purposes only, and information on the reason for admission for the other four is awaited. On Tuesday, the HSE said hundreds of people at high risk of contacting monkeypox virus will be offered a vaccine in the next few weeks.

About 6,000 people are at heightened risk from the disease and 10 per cent of them will be vaccinated from current supplies in the first phase of the vaccine rollout, it said.

Prof Fiona Lyons, HSE national clinical lead for sexual health services, said she was “very optimistic” the State will eventually have sufficient quantities of monkeypox vaccine in the country to combat the virus.

The priority for immediate treatment is people who have been close contacts of patients with the virus, and this will be followed by those who were diagnosed with early syphilis between September 2021 and July 2022, Prof Lyons told Newstalk Breakfast and RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.

“We cannot do what we would like to do — we are doing everything to source extra vaccines,” she said. The HSE had to be pragmatic and a decision was made to offer the vaccine to people with an early syphilis diagnosis, Prof Lyons said, adding this could be done through sexual-health services. Inviting people with this diagnosis to avail of the vaccine was a more efficient way, she said.

Inviting people to come forward led to a risk of missing people who needed the vaccine, she noted, adding the HSE would be “proactive in reaching out”.

The HSE estimates there are between 6,000 and 6,500 people at risk from monkeypox —most being gay or bisexual men.

Although there will be only 600 doses of the vaccine available in the coming weeks, Prof Lyons said she was “very optimistic” more doses would be sourced before the end of the year and into early next year.

The current limited supply was not where Ireland wanted to be and nor was it where the community, the Department of Health or the HSE wanted to be, she said.

Prof Lyons said she knew the uptake would be high once the vaccine became available as this was a population that was “very pro vaccine”.

“Ultimately we want to be able to offer the vaccine to all at risk.”

Prof Lyons said she hoped the situation would change as more vaccines become available and that the first vaccines will be distributed in the coming weeks. The community so far has been very understanding about the short supply of the vaccine, she said.

There have been no deaths from monkeypox in Ireland, Prof Lyons noted, adding the infected individuals (100 to date) had not experienced severe symptoms, although they had been relatively uncomfortable.

Prof Lyons encouraged anyone who thought they might have been exposed to the monkeypox virus to make an appointment with a sexual-health service. If their symptoms were serious they should seek emergency treatment but alert medical staff that they could be infected, she said.

Most monkeypox patients experience only fever, body aches, chills and fatigue, but some may develop a rash and lesions on the face and hands that can spread to other parts of the body. Most people recover within a few weeks. The incubation period of monkeypox is usually six to 13 days, but can range from five to 21 days.