Vaccines should be offered to some gay and bisexual men most at risk of contracting smallpox, the UK Health Agency said.
It is recommended to offer the smallpox vaccine Imvanex, which has been shown to be effective against the virus.
The UKHSA said a doctor can advise vaccination for someone who “has multiple partners, participates in group sex or attends sex sites on the premises.”
Anyone can contract monkeypox, but the agency said the data show higher levels of transmission “within, but not limited to, the sexual networks of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.”
Smallpox is not classified as a sexually transmitted infection, but it can be transmitted through close contact that occurs during sex.
There were 793 confirmed cases in the UK on June 20: 766 in England, 18 in Scotland, three in Northern Ireland and six in Wales.
The strategy has been endorsed by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), which led the UK’s approach to VOCID vaccinations.
Previously, the UKHSA only recommended one vaccine for close contacts with cases, including healthcare workers.
NHS England should provide brief details on how eligible people can get a hit. People are advised not to show up until they are contacted.
What should you watch out for?
People are advised to pay attention to new spots, ulcers or blisters on any part of their body, especially if they have had close contact with a new partner.
Anyone with these symptoms should avoid close contact with other people and call NHS 111 or your local sexual health center.
More information can be found on the NHS website.
Dr Mary Ramsay, UKHSA’s head of immunization, said contact tracking helped limit the spread of the monkey’s smallpox and that by offering a vaccine they hoped to “break the chains of transmission”.
“While most cases are mild, some people can get serious illnesses, so it’s important that we use the vaccine available for targeted groups that are spreading,” he said.
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Professor Paul Hunter, of the School of Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the new vaccination strategy “was the right one”.
“What we have seen with the smallpox of the monkey is a significant and continuous increase in the second wave despite the fact that control measures have been established for a few weeks.
“So it seems that the current ring vaccination strategy is not working. This is probably due to the difficulties in identifying the cases and their contacts quickly enough, possibly due to the stigma.
“Today’s report on offering a vaccine to MSM at high risk of exposure is correct. I would just add that the monkey’s smallpox is spreading due to multiple intimate and frequent contacts.
“While we don’t see much outreach outside of HSH, Monkeypox doesn’t care if these contacts are same-sex or mixed-sex, so I think we should be prepared to start offering the vaccine to sex workers “.
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4:24 Monkeypox: What we know
More than 2,500 cases have been reported in more than 35 countries outside Africa, where monkeypox is endemic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week that the virus would be renamed after experts called for a “non-discriminatory” alternative.