NHS England has opened 12 new mpox vaccination sites across England to make it easier for high-risk groups to access the service.
The 12 new sites are in addition to the 19 sites already vaccinating across London, Manchester and Brighton (see box for full list). It means that the vaccinations will now be offered across every region.
It comes after NHS England expanded access to the vaccination for high-risk groups after the delivery of new vaccine stocks.
New vaccination locations
- Birmingham
- Nottingham
- Sheffield
- Sunderland
- Hull
- Leeds
- Liverpool
- Blackpool
- Southampton
- Bristol
- Exeter
- Hatfield, Hertfordshire
In September, the Government purchased more than 150,000 doses of the vaccine, with plans to roll out a campaign to eligible group ‘in stages’.
Last week, UK public health officials reported another case of clade Ib mpox bringing the total number reported in the country to seven.
A letter to healthcare professionals seen by our sister title Pulse, explained that delivery of vaccine arrived in January and all NHS England regions would now implement at least one pre-exposure vaccination site.
Eligible groups for vaccination set out in the letter include:
- High-risk gay and bisexual men who have sex with men. Risk is based on history of multiple partners, participating in group sex, attending sex-on-premises venues or based on proxy markers such as recent bacterial sexually transmitted infection (in the past year). It should also include transgender females or gender diverse people assigned male at birth who have equivalent risk.
- Other individuals who have frequent close and intimate contact with the network at risk of mpox may also be vaccinated, irrespective of their identified gender. This would include staff who work in GBMSM sex-on-premises venues, such as saunas, if they are regularly exposed to items (e.g. linen) or surfaces likely to be contaminated with body fluids or skin cells.
Most health and social care workers are not considered to be at risk, and do not require vaccination, but the vaccine will also be available to people who are known contacts of people with confirmed clade I mpox through regional health protection teams.
Anyone who is eligible but did not complete the two-dose schedule for full vaccination in the 2022 vaccine offer can also get it now, the advice added.
Steve Russell, NHS national director for vaccination and screening, said: ‘The NHS is fully prepared to respond to mpox and the latest cases of Clade 1b with local services pulling out all the stops to vaccinate those eligible since it first became present in England, and tens of thousands in priority groups already coming forward and getting protected.
‘While the risk to the public remains low, it is important that eligible people across England are able to access mpox vaccines easily, which is why we are now offering the jabs at even more sites across the country in line with supply.’
In December, a diagnostic accelerator was launched to strengthen the UK’s pandemic preparedness and response.
The programme, from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) aims to improve the speed at which new and existing tests, such as lateral flow tests, can be made ready at rapid scale. It will evaluate if mpox lateral flow tests could be used by the public in the event of a wider outbreak.
