Amid shortage, Kansas City to stretch monkeypox doses to vaccinate 5 times more people
As of Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists 19 cases of Monkeypox in Missouri and three cases in Kansas. More than 10,768 cases have been reported nationwide as of Friday, and hundreds of new cases are being reported each day.
To combat the spread of the virus, local health departments are vaccinating people who are at high risk of infection and to make sure as many people as possible are inoculated, health officials will likely use a method called “dose sparing.”
Dose sparing will allow health departments to vaccinate five times as many people by using a small one fifth dose of the Jynneos vaccine for each patient. The Food and Drug administration approved the method for emergency use on Tuesday.
“There’s multiple ways that our bodies can uptake vaccines,” said Lance Williamson, nurse supervisor for Infection Prevention and Control at the University of Kansas Health System,” [Dose sparing] is just another way that we can spread it out a little bit.
The method is administered slightly differently than a traditional dose since it goes directly under the top layer of skin instead of deep into the fatty layer between the skin and muscle.
Patients will still get two doses of the vaccine, 28 days apart and both shots will be under the top layer of skin.
Does a smaller dose feel differently than a regular dose of vaccine?
The smaller dose of the vaccine will likely be much less painful than a full dose of vaccine, according to Dr. Dana Hawkinson, Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control at the University of Kansas Health System.
“You’re not jabbing into the subcutaneous tissue and muscle. In addition, it is a much smaller volume than what you are getting as well,” Hawkinson said during the University of Kansas Health System’s morning briefing on Friday. “I would say it probably causes less actual discomfort at the time of the injection.”
Is this method safe and effective?
Yes. It’s both safe and effective to give a smaller dose of the vaccine, according to a 2015 study from the National Institute of Health.
The same method has been used to administer vaccines for tuberculosis and rabies, according to Michelle Pekarsky, spokesperson for the Kansas City, Missouri Health Department.
“It’s not new. This data is from 2015. It’s been well studied and critiqued,” Hawkinson said.
“I think this is great, because of the incredible lack of supply of vaccine, we know how important this is and how important it is to get those people protected,” Hawkinson said.
How many more people can be vaccinated this way?
The Kansas City Health Department was sent 900 vaccines in July, and the department is expecting 900 more vaccines within the next week, for a total of 1,800 doses. With dose sparing, the health department should be able to stretch those vaccines into 9,000 doses for 4,500 people, according to Scott Clardy, deputy director, Kansas City, Missouri Health Department.
“We’re excited about that, because there’s definitely a need here,” Clardy said during the morning briefing. “We have lots of folks in some high risk groups that we need to reach out to and get this going.”
At the state level, Missouri health officials initially ordered 2,413 doses—100% of their allocation—and distributed them across the state. According to Dr. Hawkinson, the Kansas side, there are 1,100 doses available, which is enough to inoculate up to 2,750 people with dose sparing.
In late July they were told they could order more, and some of that allocation was expected to arrive this week.
They will place another order on Aug. 15, and the rest of their allocation will depend on the status of the outbreak in the state and vaccine administration, state health officials told The Star.
At the federal level, the U.S. is getting 150,000 more full doses for its national stockpile in September, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Who can get vaccines right now?
The Kansas City health department was given a green light to use half of those vaccines on people who don’t have a known-exposure but are at high risk for the virus, according to the Kansas City Health Department. “We are advocating for the people concerned and frightened because they are at high risk,” Pekarsky said in a statement.
The new vaccine eligibility will be for communities considered high-risk including:
Men who are intimate with men
Transgender men or women who have had 2 or more same-sex sexual partners in last 14 days
People who have engaged in a social and/or sexual venue in last 14 days, which could include interacting with someone with lesions at a bar or party or visiting a bathhouse or strip club.
People who have given or received money or other goods/service in exchange for sex in last 14 days or have engaged in survival/work sex
“We might be able to knock it out where we don’t see that level of transmission. We have a vaccine and a health care system that can deliver it,” Dr. Allen Greiner, medical officer for the Unified Government said during the morning briefing.
