Monkeypox vaccination campaign kicks off

Italy on Monday began vaccinating people against monkeypox. Spallanzani Hospital, Rome’s main infectious disease hospital, said 10 people were vaccinated on Monday. The hospital said it is using the two-dose Jynneos vaccine, which was created to combat the spread of smallpox but is believed to be effective also against monkeypox, since smallpox and monkeypox viruses are closely related. The vaccine can only be administered to adults. Though the Jynneos vaccine is not new, there are no large stockpiles of the serum in Italy. Media reports also indicated that the number of vaccination requests by late Monday surpassed 600.