Cases of monkeypox in our area have been on the decline since mid-August, but there’s still a need for more vaccines.
To stretch the vaccine supply, one local researcher is studying if the dose can be cut down and remain effective.
Cases of monkeypox in our area have been on the decline since mid-August, but according to Dr. Hana El-Sahly Professor of Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, there’s still a shortage of vaccine supply.
To try to protect more people, the United States began vaccinating people with 1/5th of Jynneos in August.
El-Sahly was part of the research team who determined that can be as effective as the full dose. Now, she’s researching if the dose can be cut down more.
“What this new test is trying to evaluate is whether, if we give 1/10 of the dose of Jynneos in the skin, we get a comparable immune response,” El-Sahly explained.
Currently, in Houston and Harris County combined, there are only a few new cases. In total, there have been 739 people infected with the disease in that area.
Through city and county pop-up sites, thousands of those exposed have been vaccinated.
If those efforts reduce the risk of monkeypox before El-Sahly’s study is over, she said they’ll still need the data anyway.
“We will need this information. When we set out to do the first study 10 years ago, there was no monkeypox circulating in the United States. At the time, the concern was what if we need it for smallpox? What if we have a limited supply of vaccines and we need to vaccinate more people against smallpox? The data we demonstrated came in handy 10 years later against monkeypox,” El-Sahly explained. “So, even if the outbreak dies down and we all hope it does, the data we generate will become useful down the line, maybe in other countries, it would be good quality data for use in public health questions.”
Investigators anticipate the trial will take 15 months to complete; however, initial results could be available in early 2023. For more information, please visit clincialtrials.gov and search identifier NCT05512949.
To enroll in the vaccine trial at the Baylor site, monkeypoxvax@bcm.edu or call 713-798-4912.
