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Spain has asked the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for permission to give more people a small dose of the monkeypox vaccine, according to the health ministry.
The country has the second highest number of monkeypox infections in the world outside of endemic areas.
More than 5,000 cases, including two deaths, have been confirmed since May, second only to the United States, which registered 9,492 cases as of Wednesday.
Biden administration declares monkeypox a public health emergency
The EMA on Wednesday allows the U.S. to save doses after advocating using one vial of the vaccine on Tuesday for up to five separate doses instead of one dose. He said he would discuss the possibilities.
Spain’s health ministry did not specify the dose it hoped to get from a single vial, but local health officials in Madrid had previously requested the same scheme as in the United States.
Supplies of Gynneos, the only vaccine approved for the prevention of monkeypox, manufactured by Denmark-based pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic, are in short supply. Spain has received only about 12,000 vaccines through a joint purchase coordinated by the European Union.
Monkeypox: What You Need to Know About the Virus and How to Protect Yourself
Dose-sparing approaches have been tried with other vaccines, but evidence is limited as to whether they work for monkeypox.
More than 30,000 cases and 12 deaths have been reported worldwide after the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency on 24 July.