TEXAS, USA — Texas received 14,780 doses of the monkeypox vaccine JYNNEOS on Monday. Of them, Austin Public Health reported that it has requested 5,000.
The shipment from the federal Strategic National Stockpile is anticipated to be the last such delivery until August or September due to the vaccine's scarcity.
Roughly 5,100 doses immediately went to Dallas County Health and Human Services because the area has the greatest amount of confirmed monkeypox cases in the state. The Texas Department of State Health Services will distribute the remaining vaccine doses "to local health departments and DSHS regional offices to vaccinate people with a documented or presumed exposure to the monkeypox virus," a release from the department said.
A separate roughly 5,000 dose shipment from the Strategic National Stockpile went to Houston County and Harris County.
The monkeypox virus is now community spread in Austin-Travis County. The illness can be characterized by a blister- or pimple-like rash as well as headache, exhaustion and swollen lymph nodes.
The virus spreads through close contact with bodily fluids, scabs and rashes as well as infected items.
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