The Warren County Health Department has received calls in regard to the availability of a monkey pox vaccine. Administrator Jenna Link informs the department does not have any vaccines and no cases are reported in Warren County:
“This is a rare virus that we really have not seen transmitting like it is right now. This is new. It is not typically a sexually transmitted disease, but it is transmitting kind of like that. It is really spreading right now in a very specific group, high risk activities that put you at a higher risk for getting monkey pox. Right now, we have no cases in Warren County. We have no vaccine available at this point and won’t until we have our first case of even close contact. If you are exposed to monkey pox there are antivirals, there’s vaccinations that are specific to monkey pox, similar to what they use for smallpox.”
900 cases of monkey pox have been reported in Illinois.
**Written by WMOI/WRAM Director of Communications Kelsey Crain**
