CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration will allocate 296,000 doses of vaccines to fight monkeypox from a national stockpile to states and territories in the coming weeks, it said on Tuesday, ramping up U.S. efforts to staunch the spread of the disease.
Of the doses, 56,000 will be allocated immediately, and 1.6 million doses will be made available over the coming months, officials said.
The United States has 306 cases of monkeypox, a viral infection related to smallpox that causes painful skin lesions. Although the virus is endemic in parts of Africa, the current outbreak has hit countries where the virus does not usually spread, sparking concern that it could become more widespread.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen and Jeff Mason; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
