The Health Ministry will experiment with monkeypox vaccination in pharmacies, in three regions of France, it said Monday night.
Five pharmacies in three regions
In five pharmacies, located in Île-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur and Hauts-de-France, pharmacists will be able to vaccinate people against monkeypox, starting Wednesday, during this experiment for a period of two weeks, the Ministry of Health told AFP.
The regional health authorities have selected two pharmacies in Ile-de-France, two in Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur and one in Hauts-de-France, we add.
This experiment will test the “organizational models between the pharmacies and the hospitals that receive the doses”, to decide if it is convenient to extend the vaccination campaign to other pharmacies.
A limited target audience
Smallpox vaccine used for monkeypox vaccination must be kept at a very low temperature (-80°C) and “can only be kept for fifteen days” once thawed, the ministry explains.
The vaccines, although single doses, are packaged in boxes of twenty doses. “It will therefore be a matter of evaluating whether there is no dose loss,” specifies the ministry. Remember that unlike the vaccination campaign against Covid-19, pharmacies this time will only be able to target a limited audience.
The target audience includes men who have sex with men who report multiple sexual partners, trans people who report multiple sexual partners, female sex workers, and professionals who work in places of sexual consumption.
A campaign considered slow
Faced with criticism from left-wing associations and elected officials for the slow pace of the vaccination campaign, Health Minister François Braun said last week that he was working on an experiment with pharmacists.
To do this, a decree will be published in the Official Gazette in the coming days, says the ministry.
To date, 153 vaccination centers have been opened in the territory and 20,322 people have been vaccinated as of August 4.
Source: BFM TV
