The World Health Organization announced today, Friday, the approval of the MVA-BN serum as the first vaccine against monkeypox to be added to the prequalification list. The Director-General of the organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a statement that "the prequalification approval is expected to facilitate timely access to this vital product in communities with urgent need, to reduce transmission and help contain the outbreak." He added that "this initial qualification of the monkeypox vaccine is an important step in our fight against the disease, both in the context of the current outbreak in Africa and in the future," stressing: "We now need an urgent increase in procurement, donations and distribution to ensure equitable access to vaccines where they are most needed, along with other public health tools, to prevent infection, stop transmission and save lives." He continued: "The monkeypox vaccine can be given to people over 18 years of age as a two-dose injection, 4 weeks apart. Monkeypox (mpox) is a viral disease caused by the monkeypox virus, a type of the genus Poxvirus, which has two different monophyletic clades: clade I and clade II. Common symptoms of the disease are a rash or mucosal lesions that can last from 2 to 4 weeks and are accompanied by fever, headache, muscle pain, back pain, weakness and swollen lymph nodes. Monkeypox cases have spread to several African countries, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Source: National Iraqi News Agency