By Leada Gore
The Alabama Department of Public Health has received its initial allocation of more than 200 doses of vaccine for the monkeypox virus with additional doses expected to be delivered soon.
The doses are part of the first round of allocations from the federal Strategic National Stockpile and comes as the total number of monkeypox cases in the U.S. has grown to more than 2,500. Two cases – one in Mobile, another in Jefferson County – have been reported in Alabama.
Because the supply of vaccine is limited at this time, it will only be made available to those who are known to have been exposed to monkeypox within the previous 14 days or to a person attending an event at a venue where monkeypox virus was known to have been transmitted.
Monkeypox is a rare disease that typically has been limited to central Africa. Its symptoms are similar to smallpox and include fever, headache, muscle and backaches, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion, and, most notably, a rash that looks like pimples or blisters. The blisters typically appear on the face, inside the mouth and on other parts of the body like hands, feet, chest, genitals or anus.
The illness typically lasts four 2-4 weeks.
