UAE doctors hail EU’s approval of monkeypox vaccine, urge caution

UAE doctors hail EU’s approval of monkeypox vaccine, urge caution

Doctors in the United Arab Emirates hailed the European Commission’s approval of a vaccine to combat monkeypox as cases of the potentially fatal disease continue to rise globally.

The EU on Monday approved Danish biotech company Bavarian Nordic’s monkeypox vaccine Imvanex on Monday, just days after the World Health Organization officially declared the spread of the virus a global health emergency.

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“The approval of Danish Biotech Nordic Imvanex vaccine is definitely a new hope to prevent monkeypox,” Internal Medicine Specialist at Abu Dhabi’s Bareen International Hospital in MBZ City, Dr. Ahmed Raza Khan, told Al Arabiya English.

“According to the WHO, the clinical presentation of monkeypoxis like that of smallpox. Its symptoms are similar to those seen in smallpox patients, and include rashes, fever, swelling of lymph nodes, lesions, [and] pustules,” Specialist and Head of the Internal Medicine department at Dubai’s Medeor Hospital Dr. Mohamed Shafeeq said.

“Studies suggest that the smallpox vaccine is about 85 percent effective in preventing monkeypox,” Shafeeq added.

Imvanexis the only vaccine to have won approval for the prevention of monkeypox disease in the US and Canada and was only approved for treating smallpox in the