Cin accordance with the opinion of the High Authority for Health (HAS), “it is a very targeted vaccination which is offered to people who have had a contact considered to be at risk”we said.
The first vaccinated is a man in his thirties and residing in Paris, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP to be the contact case of the first confirmed patient in France on May 20.
“I saw him on May 14 in the afternoon in an apartment in Paris. I did not have sex with this person but I was in prolonged (physical) contact with this person, for three hours, in the same space”he testified to AFP.
“My case was discussed because I was not exposed through sexual relations, which does not make me a red case but rather an orange one”he explained.
France currently has seven cases “proven” monkey pox, the new Minister of Health Brigitte Bourguignon said on Wednesday, adding that the country had the necessary stocks of smallpox vaccine to vaccinate contact cases.
The incubation period for monkeypox is most often between 6 and 16 days, which can range from 5 to 21 days.
The HAS recommends administering the vaccine “ideally within four days after the risky contact and at most 14 days later with a two-dose regimen (or three doses in immunocompromised subjects), spaced 28 days apart”.
Monkeypox, several cases of which have been detected in Europe and North America, is a rare disease originating in Africa which is generally cured spontaneously.
In the current state of knowledge, human-to-human transmission requires close and prolonged contact between two people, and occurs mainly via saliva or pus from skin lesions formed during infection.