Sweden receives a smallpox vaccine

Sweden has received a limited number of doses of the vaccine that can be used against monkeypox. This was announced by the Swedish Public Health Agency (FHM) in a press release today.

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Posted at 05:00, 20 July 2022

There is a global shortage of the vaccine and it has been distributed to European countries on the basis of population and is distributed in solidarity with the European Union countries.

“The most important thing to slow the increasing spread of infection is early identification of cases, infection tracing, and a code of conduct for confirmed cases so that infection is not transmitted. A vaccine is part of the infection control work, but it cannot be transmitted,” said Soren Andersson, unit director at the Swedish Public Health Agency, in the press release. It replaces other infection control measures.

Vaccine doses will be distributed primarily in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, but the Swedish Public Health Agency will also get vaccines in other regions. Doses can be enough for about 1,500 people depending on how they are used.

At the beginning In July, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that more than 5,000 people contracted the disease in the spring and summer in 51 countries where the disease was not present before. 90 percent of those are in Europe, where 31 countries have reported cases of smallpox.

Until May This year, as far as is known, smallpox did not cause an outbreak at all outside parts of Central and West Africa, where the disease has been around for decades.

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Most cases of smallpox in Europe were recorded in major cities. This also applies in Sweden, where most cases have been found in the Stockholm area.

In Sweden, most cases are related to travel, but about 40 percent of reported cases are infected here at home. A total of 58 cases were registered in Sweden in the middle of last week, of which 48 were in the Stockholm region.