Published on
Updated
Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Medical validation:
August 13, 2022
From this Wednesday, five pharmacies located in Île-de-France, in the PACA region and in Hauts-de-France will be able to vaccinate the population against the virus. The experiment should last two weeks.
While the monkeypox epidemic was recently classified as a “public health emergency”, five pharmacies are now authorized to vaccinate the population against the virus. Two pharmacies are in Paris, one in Lille, and two in the South: Fréjus and Marseille.
A 15-day experiment
The Minister of Health, François Braun, indicated that it was an experiment lasting two weeks.
The government’s goal? Test the “organizational models between the pharmacies and the hospitals that receive the doses”.
If the experience is conclusive, other French pharmacies could adopt this strategy.
A good initiative according to Dr. Kierzek, who specifies “That in France, with the territorial network of pharmacies, there is no pharmaceutical desert. Vaccinating thousands of people is therefore quite possible, as is already the case for the flu“.
The government does not want to “lose a dose”
According to the ministry, the injection used for vaccination against monkeypox must be kept at very low temperatures (-80°C) and “can only be kept for fifteen days” once thawed.
The vaccines are also packaged in boxes of twenty doses.
“It will therefore be a question of evaluating whether there is no loss of doses“, specifies the ministry.
Vaccination against monkey pox: for whom?
Currently, the population eligible for vaccination is limited.
Indeed, injections are offered exclusively to people “most at risk”, that is to say:
- homosexuals with multiple sexual partners;
- trans people with multiple sexual partners;
- to sex workers, who struggle to find appointments in centers to get vaccinated;
- professionals working in places of sexual consumption,
Indeed, during frequent sexual intercourse and/or with different partners (skin to skin, contact with mucous membranes, bedding, etc.), the risks are multiplied. These populations are therefore particularly exposed to the virus.
Currently, more than 2,400 cases of monkeypox have been identified in France. They are mainly located in Ile-de-France, Occitanie and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.