Japan Uses Smallpox Vaccine To Prevent Monkeypox

Illustration of monkey pox. (Between)

JAKARTA - An expert panel at the Japanese Ministry of Health approved the use of a smallpox vaccine made by KM Biologics Co based in the southwestern city of Kumamoto, to prevent monkeypox.

The smallpox vaccine is about 85 percent effective at preventing monkeypox, Jiji Press reported, citing the ministry.

The panel approved the KM Biologics vaccine to be used to prevent monkeypox infection and the development of severe symptoms.

KM Biologics is a unit of Japanese food and pharmaceutical company Meiji Holdings Co.

The Japanese Ministry of Health has vaccinated 50 medical workers at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM) for research purposes.

The ministry also allows the use of foreign-made monkeypox treatments that have not been approved in Japan at NCGM and three other institutions in Osaka, Aichi and Okinawa prefectures.

More than 18,000 people in 78 countries have been infected with the monkeypox virus, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) as of Wednesday (27/7).

Most patients become infected through contact with a rash or bodily fluids of an infected person, and most recover naturally within two to four weeks.

"Unlike COVID-19, human-to-human transmission does not occur easily," the Japanese Ministry of Health said as reported by Antara.